


Something to Live For

by dreaming_wide_awake



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, F/F, grew into something else, i have no idea what to put here, mommy!Lexa, not FTWD or TWD linked in any way, started as a drabble on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-14
Updated: 2017-10-05
Packaged: 2018-07-24 01:58:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 62,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7488900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreaming_wide_awake/pseuds/dreaming_wide_awake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clarke is out searching for medical supplies when she ends up in a spot of bother. Enter Lexa, soldier and all round badass, to save the day. Taking Clarke to where she lives with her people, where Clarke sees some faces she didn't expect to see again.</p><p>or</p><p>This started as a drabble prompt over on Tumblr but grew into something else. It's not FTWD or TWD linked in anyway, it's a stand alone Clexa AU that happens to be set with Zombies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I know I already have so many stories going on, but you can blame an anon on Tumblr for this one as they sent me a drabble prompt that said "Clexa Zombie AU" and this is the expanded result of that. Don't forget to comment and let me know what you think as it'll encourage the muse to make me write more.

As the sun burned in the sky, Clarke ran, her lungs were burning and it felt like she had been running for hours. She knew she hadn’t been, but it sure felt like it. The water canteen that she carried, and had managed to refill that morning, was empty. She had gone out further than normal on the hunt to find food or material she could take back, which was always a risk, but the rewards could sometimes make it worth it. It had been a year since the initial ‘virus outbreak’, in that year her group of people had set up a small community for themselves, they were growing their own food and had become pretty much self-sufficient. But there were still things that they needed. The scouting groups had raided all near-by hospitals and pharmacies, medical supplies were definitely worth the risk of running into a group of biters.

She was three days away from her community, but scouts had reported that there was a large pharmacy in the area, so Clarke had decided to go out on her own to check it out. Bad idea number one. Bad idea number two had been only taking two clips of ammunition with her. She had spent the night in an abandoned house, sleeping for no more than an hour at a time. Clarke had seen a small group of biters near the house as she left, making her move a lot quieter than she normally would do. It hadn’t really helped though, as soon as she was out in the open, they had caught her scent and were on her trail.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Lexa used to hate the quiet, it normally indicated that something bad was about to happen, now the quiet was a good thing and Lexa found herself enjoying it. She had driven the car away from the compound as she had done many times in the previous year. She’d lost count of the amount of bullets she had gone through in those early days, though she had tried to keep count. The area around the compound was now pretty secure, but none of them ever took that for granted.

The radio that she had next to her crackled to life, with a sigh she sat up on the roof of the car and picked up the radio.

“We’ve got a runner.” Anya’s voice said through the radio.

“A runner?” Lexa asked, “someone out for a midday jog?”

“Wouldn’t really call it a jog, more like a sprint for the nearest building.” Anya replied, the smirk on her face was clear in her voice.

“How far?” Lexa asked, jumping down from the top of the car, opening the door and getting into the vehicle.

“Pharmacy building.” Anya replied.

“How many hostiles?” Lexa asked in reply.

“10 that we can see.” Anya said, “and before you ask, no we don’t know where they’re coming from, as we cleared the area.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

Clarke’s hands started to shake as she tried to force the last clip into her gun.

“Shit, shit, shit.” She mumbled as the clip slipped in her hand.

As she put the clip in the gun she looked over the top of the counter, seeing a small group of biters bumbling their way towards her.

“Oh my mom is going to kick my ass…” Clarke sighed as she dropped back down.

Just as she was about to stand up and start shooting, knowing she could take down at least half of the group, she heard a vehicle pull up and rapid gun fire following it.

As Clarke’s breathing returned to something that could be considered moderately normal she heard the crunching of glass as someone came in through the already shattered front window.

“You still alive in there?” someone shouted.

Taking another deep breath, Clarke stood up and saw a brunette in army fatigues, her gun securely in her hand.

“Didn’t anyone tell you that it’s not safe to go out for a run anymore.” Lexa said, a smirk pulling at her lips.

“Must have missed that memo.” Clarke replied, shaking her head a little as she walked around the counter.

Lexa lifted her gun a little.

“I haven’t been bitten, don’t worry.” Clarke said with a sigh, holding her arms out a little and slowly turning around to show the brunette that there weren’t any wounds.

“Can’t be too careful these days,” Lexa replied, lowering her gun again, “what are you doing out here?”

“Looking for supplies.” Clarke said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Seems you lucked out with that one.” Lexa said, looking around the trashed pharmacy.

“It’s not looking too good.” Clarke agreed.

“Are you out here on your own?” Lexa asked, causing Clarke to nod, “come with me.”

“Where?” Clarke asked in reply.

“Somewhere safe.” Lexa replied, climbing back out of the shattered window.

“I need to…” Clarke started to say as she followed the brunette.

“You need to be somewhere safe,” Lexa said, stopping near the car and looking back at the blonde, “that gun fire would have attracted any hostiles in the area, if you want to stay out here and become a snack for a group of them, tell me now and I’ll shoot you in the head to lessen your suffering.”

“Wow, that’s a pleasant thought.” Clarke said as she walked up to the car.

“Your choice.” Lexa replied as she opened the car door and climbed inside.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Clarke let out a dramatic sigh as Lexa hit one of the buttons on the dash of the car, which opened a set of metal gates within a fence surrounding a small group of buildings.

“Are you going to tell me where we are?” she asked as Lexa drove the car towards what Clarke assumed was a parking lot as there were 5 other cars there.

“Somewhere safe.” Lexa replied, pulling the car to a stop before getting out and walking towards one of the buildings, not waiting for the blonde to follow.

Lexa had barely said a word to Clarke on the drive back to the compound. Clarke took a look around her as she got out of the car, she could clearly see that all the cars were solar powered, a little further away she saw a couple of rows of solar panels, at a quick glance she’d say there were about 30 of them. She had no idea why there were so many panels as she could only see four buildings, tech stuff wasn’t really her thing but even she knew that you didn’t need that many panels to power four buildings.

“Why so many panels?” Clarke asked as she followed Lexa.

“More power.” Lexa replied walking towards the door of the building, she stopped and looked back at Clarke, “don’t touch the fence.”

“Why not?” Clarke asked.

“It’s electric.” Lexa said, “I would advise that you don’t try to climb it, the higher you go the more the current. I would also advise that you don’t try to climb under it, as it goes two foot into the ground.”

“Which makes it about 9-foot-high in total?” Clarke asked, walking closer to Lexa.

“Closer to 11.” Lexa replied before opening the door and walking into the building.

Clarke followed in behind to see that the building itself seemed to be empty, there was no furniture, nothing.

“I’ve heard that some people like the minimalist look…” Clarke said as she looked around.

A small smirk tugged at Lexa’s lips as she walked towards one of the doors.

“This way.” She said.

Clarke watched as Lexa pulled a keycard attached to a chain from under her shirt, swiping it through the small card reader next to the door. The door hissed a little as it opened, which caused Clarke to jump back slightly.

“Bit jumpy there, blondie.” Lexa said, smirking as she turned to look at Clarke.

“My name is Clarke.” Clarke replied with a shake of the head.

“Lexa.” The brunette replied, “follow me.”

Clarke followed Lexa down a flight of metal stairs, the stairway was very well lit and the walls were painted grey. A scent caught Clarke’s nose as they walked, it smelt like disinfectant mixed with something else that she couldn’t quite place.

“So are you going to tell me what this place is yet?” the blonde asked, “I mean, how do I know that you’re not just taking me to some creepy underground bunker to kill me.”

“Clarke,” Lexa said, amusement clear in her voice, “if I wanted to kill you I would’ve done it already, probably easier to get rid of a body by leaving it outside the fence, rather than bringing you down here.”

“Or maybe you’re the head of a cannibal colony and this is a way to trap unsuspecting victims.” Clarke said, causing Lexa to laugh out loud.

“People down here don’t eat other people, Clarke,” Lexa said as they reached the bottom of the stairs, “if they did we’d be no better than those above ground, and how many of those have you heard actually speak.”

“Maybe you’re just a super smart biter.” Clarke replied with a shrug.

Lexa rolled her eyes a little and lead Clarke through another door using her keycard.

As they walked through the door Clarke saw a sign on the wall that read:

_Please turn in all weapons._

And another next to it which said:

_No weapons beyond this point._

“You want me to give up my gun?” Clarke asked as she watched Lexa put her gun and ammunition into a hatch on the wall, taking a small card which was then handed to her.

“You don’t need your gun down here, Clarke.” Lexa replied.

“And you expect me to just trust you on that?” Clarke said, “I met you like 20 minutes ago.”

“When I was saving your life,” Lexa reminded her, “it’s your choice, either hand over your gun or I can show you out and you can find your way to wherever you want to go from here.”

“I don’t even know where here is, Lexa.” Clarke said with a sigh.

“Then the choice seems pretty simple to me.” Lexa replied.

Clarke took her gun from the waistband of her jeans, sighing as she looked down at the weapon that had saved her life many times, before she looked at Lexa again.

“I will get it back, right?” she asked.

“If and when you want to leave, yes.” Lexa said with a nod.

“Fine.” Clarke said with a sigh as she handed the weapon to Lexa, and watched as the brunette took the clip out and put both into the small hatch on the wall, before handing Clarke the small card.

“Keep that somewhere safe.” Lexa said as Clarke took the card and looked at it, “when you want to go above ground again, hand the card in here and they’ll give you your gun back.”

“What’s next?” Clarke asked as they walked towards another door, “you want me to strip so someone can check me over for bites?”

She saw Lexa smirk as she heard a laugh coming from the other side of the small hatch where Lexa had handed over the weapons.

“That won’t be necessary.” Lexa said as they walked through the next door, “you are going to need to stand still though.”

“Why?” Clarke asked, looking around the small corridor they were now standing in.

“Decontamination,” Lexa replied as a red light flashed above the door on the far side, “basically the room is going to be pumped with air that has a chemical in it. That chemical will react negatively to enzymes that are present in the blood after you’ve been bitten.”

“And you do this fully clothed?” Clarke asked.

“The chemical soaks through the skin and into the blood stream, it’s harmless unless you’ve been bitten,” Lexa replied glancing at Clarke, a smirk playing on her lips, “it can be done naked if you’re in that much of a hurry to strip for me.”

“I’ll pass, thanks.” Clarke said, her eyes narrowed a little as she looked at Lexa, though the slight blush on her cheeks made the brunette laugh, “what happens if you’ve been bitten? You said it’s harmless unless you’ve been bitten.”

“It burns,” Lexa said, “it makes your blood feel like it’s on fire, and you’ll be dead within a minute. I hear it’s quite painful.”

“Has anyone ever made it this far after being bitten?” the blonde asked.

“Once or twice.” Lexa replied, the tone of her voice letting Clarke know that she wasn’t going to go into more detail, as she looked up at a camera that was in the corner of the room and nodded slightly.

Clarke jumped a little as a soft hissing sound started to filter into the corridor, she looked around but couldn’t actually see anything. She didn’t know what she was expecting, plumes of smoke perhaps, but there wasn’t anything.

“Relax Clarke.” Lexa said, looking over at her.

“Says the girl who dragged me off to some creepy underground bunker where I may or may not be on the dinner menu for the next week.” Clarke mumbled.

“We couldn’t get a weeks’ worth of meat off you,” Lexa said, with an arch of her eyebrow, “there are too many people down here.”

“How many people are down here exactly?” Clarke asked.

“We have about 100,” Lexa replied, “started with 130, but that number dropped pretty quickly.”

“Why?” the blonde asked in reply.

“People die.” Lexa said, not saying anything more as normal lighting filled the small corridor and the red light above the door stopped flashing, “would you look at that, you’re bite free.”

“Told you.” Clarke said as she followed Lexa through the door at the far end of the corridor.

As the exited the corridor Clarke noticed the white walls, the white floor, everything looked pristine and clean. She followed behind Lexa as the brunette walked down one of the long hallways. Her eyebrows furrowing a little as they passed a man in army fatigues who nodded his head slightly at Lexa, and said something that sounded like ‘Commander’. There was no way that Lexa could be a Commander, she was too young for starters.

“Is this an army facility?” Clarke asked as she caught up to Lexa.

“Yes.” Lexa replied, glancing at the blonde.

“I’ve lived around here my whole life and never knew this place was here.” Clarke said.

“Wouldn’t be much of a secret if everyone knew about it, would it.” Lexa said as they continued walking.

“We always thought that a crazy cult lived here,” the blonde said, “though there were rumors, after the outbreak started that they were manufacturing a cure here.”

“There is no cure, Clarke.” Lexa said, her jaw clenched slightly.

“There has to be,” Clarke said, “it’s a virus, right, for every virus there has to be a cure.”

“Not every virus has a cure.” The brunette said.

“Name me one.” Clarke said as she stopped walking.

“Ebola, Polio, HIV, AIDS.” Lexa said, stopping and looking back at the blonde.

“Technically AIDS is a syndrome, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.” Clarke replied, shrugging slight as Lexa arched her eyebrow, “my mom is a doctor.”

“AIDS starts off as a virus, yes?” Lexa asked.

“Well, yeah,” Clarke said, “but not everyone…”

“Who has HIV will get AIDS, I’m aware how it works, Clarke.” Lexa said, “my point is there are many viruses that are untreatable, this is one of them.”

“There has to be a cure…” Clarke said with a sigh.

“There isn’t.” Lexa replied before she continued walking.

“So this is how humanity is going to end?” Clarke asked, jogging to catch up to Lexa, “we’re all going to eat each other?”

“I’m a soldier,” Lexa said, shaking her head a little, “not a scientist, I’m sure there’s someone with a brain much larger than mine that is working on some kind of solution. We don’t know how long the biters, as you call them, can survive if they don’t feed, we don’t know if they eventually just die. I’m given a gun, I go out there, and I shoot them. It’s not my job to figure this out.”

“Are you not in the slightest bit curious?” Clarke asked.

“Not really.” Lexa said.

Their conversation was cut off by the sound of footsteps running towards them, Clarke jumped backwards a little when a young boy rounded the corner and ran straight into Lexa, the brunette not hesitating to pick the young boy up.

“What have you been told about running in the hallway?” Lexa asked, her face remaining completely serious until the young boy poked her in the cheeks.

“Missed you.” He said with a grin.

“I told you I’d come back didn’t I?” Lexa said, causing the young boy to nod, “do I ever say anything I don’t mean?”

“Nope.” He replied, “but momma…”

The young boy stopped talking when he spotted Clarke.

“Who that?” he asked Lexa.

“This is Clarke,” Lexa replied, “Clarke, this is Aden.”

“Hi.” Clarke said with a small smile and a wave.

“Is she new?” Aden asked, his eyes flicking between Clarke and Lexa.

Before Lexa could answer a brunette girl, around Clarke’s age, walked around the corner.

“I am so sorry, Lexa,” she said, “he heard one of the guards say you were back, and he just ran off.”

“It’s okay,” Lexa replied with a small smile, before she looked back at Aden, “let’s get you back and we’ll talk about this later, okay.”

“Did I do a naughty?” Aden asked, his lower lip trembling a little in a way that Clarke found adorably cute.

“Not the trembling lip and puppy eyes.” Lexa groaned, bringing one of her hands up to cover her eyes, “you know I can’t stay mad at that.”

Aden pulled at Lexa’s fingers, before the brunette quickly moved her hand and placed a kiss on his cheek, causing him to giggle.

“We’re going to have to take a small detour,” Lexa said, glancing over at Clarke, “hope that’s okay with you.”

“As I have no idea where you’re taking me, or where I am for that matter…” Clarke replied.

“You’re in Laris.” Aden said, looking at Clarke.

“Polaris.” Lexa corrected.

“P… Po… Pol. Nope.” Aden said, shaking his head a little.

“You’ll get there, buddy.” Lexa replied with a small smile, placing a soft kiss on Aden’s forehead.

“Hi,” the other brunette said as she looked at Clarke, “I’m Ontari.”

“Clarke,” the blonde replied, “nice to meet you.”

Lexa started walking, Aden still in her arms, Ontari quickly walked to catch up with her.

“She’s hot, Commander.” Ontari said quietly to Lexa.

“Is she ick…” Aden said looking between the two of them.

“Not that kind of hot, kid.” Ontari said with a laugh.

Clarke followed Lexa, Ontari and Aden as they rounded the corner and walked towards a small room. The blonde stood at the door as the three of them walked into the room, which had 6 other kids in it, all of varying ages, but if Clarke had to guess none of them were older than 7. As Lexa put Aden down the other kids all waved at her and started talking over each other to try and get her attention.

“Hey, guys, the Commander is busy right now,” Ontari said, “but if we ask nicely, maybe she’ll stop by again later.”

“Pwease.” Aden said as he looked up at Lexa.

“I’ll try.” She replied as she looked down at him, “no promises though.”

Aden nodded a little, though Clarke noticed the sad look that suddenly appeared in his eyes, as Lexa obviously did as well as she crouched down in front of him.

“I love you.” She said.

“To the moon and back?” Aden asked.

“Further.” Lexa said with a small smile, before she again kissed him on the head.

Lexa then stood up and walked back towards the door where Clarke was standing, the kids all stopped what they were doing, dropping into silence when they saw the blonde.

“I’m guessing they don’t see a lot of new people.” Clarke said quietly to Lexa.

“Not very often, no.” Lexa replied, “we should get going, there are people you need to meet.”

Clarke again found herself following Lexa.

“So,” the blonde said as they turned back into the hallway where they had been when Aden found them, “Commander, huh?”

Lexa didn’t reply, she simply nodded slightly, Clarke had a feeling she did that a lot.

“Does that put you in charge?” she asked, “Aren’t you a bit young for that?”

“People die.” Lexa said, as if that was answer enough.

They kept on walking, Clarke was starting to think that the underground complex was a lot bigger than she originally thought it would be.

“How big is this place?” she asked, looking down more hallways which split off from the one they were walking down.

“It is large enough to comfortably hold up to 500 people,” Lexa replied, “it was originally built to house people in the aftermath of a nuclear war. There are others like it dotted around the US, 13 in total.”

“And the government didn’t think that the general public should know about them?” the blonde asked.

“I’m a soldier, Clarke.” Lexa said with a small tight-lipped smile, “I assume that they didn’t want to panic anyone by announcing they were preparing for a nuclear apocalypse.”

“But how many people could’ve been saved if more had known about these places before the virus outbreak?” Clarke asked.

“That wasn’t my call,” Lexa said, clenching her jaw again, “we saved as many as we could.”

“There are still people alive out there, Lexa.” Clarke replied.

“You think I don’t know that?” Lexa said as she stopped walking and looked at Clarke, “to keep the people that are down here safe, we need to be very careful about who we let in. We’re one of the smaller facilities, but we’re doing what we can.”

“This is small?” Clarke asked.

“Yes,” Lexa replied with a nod, “there is a facility near New York that is pretty much a city underground, it was built to hold up to 5,000 people.”

“Jesus…” Clarke said with a sigh.

“And before you ask, no, I don’t know exactly how many people they have there.” Lexa said before she started walking again, this time rounding another corner and walking towards a door at the end of the hallway.

As Lexa opened the door everyone inside stood up.

“Commander.” Anya said, glancing over Lexa’s shoulder at Clarke.

“Report.” Lexa said.

“Nothing worthy of reporting,” Anya replied, “we have the drones out, there are a few small settlements that may be worth checking out, but there are a lot of hostiles between us and them.”

“Clarke?” a voice towards the back of the room said.

“Octavia?” Clarke said in reply, stepping into the room.

“Blake?” Lexa said, shooting a questioning look in Octavia’s direction.

“Sorry, Commander, we went to high school together,” Octavia said, quickly standing to attention before she reached where Lexa and Clarke were standing, “Clarke was in the same year as Bell.”

“He’s here?” Clarke asked, causing Octavia to nod, “And you’re a soldier now?”

“Not officially,” Octavia said, “not like army trained or anything, but numbers were running low and…”

“And Octavia was constantly getting into fights so it was agreed that she should be trained, to get rid of some of that aggression.” Lexa said, finishing what Octavia was saying.

“How’s that working out for you?” Clarke said, a small smirk pulling at her lips.

“Honestly, biggest mistake I ever made.” Lexa said with a smirk of her own.

“What happened to Raven?” Clarke asked as she looked at Octavia again, “you guys all left together, we thought…”

“We thought you were too.” Octavia replied, not needing Clarke to finish her sentence to know what she was going to say, “Raven’s here…”

Octavia motioned with her head to where another brunette was sitting in front of a wall of screens, her fingers moving around on a touch screen tablet, headphones blocking out the noise in the room.

“Yo, Reyes.” Anya yelled, getting no response from Raven, so she threw a pencil at her instead.

“That works.” Lexa muttered as Raven span around in her chair looking like she was going to murder someone.

“The hell dude.” Raven said, glaring at Anya as she took the headphones off.

“Someone you might want to see.” Anya said, motioning towards the door.

“No fucking way…” Raven said as she saw Clarke.

“Hey, Raven.” Clarke replied.

“Are you for real?” Raven asked as she stood up, “all I get is ‘hey, Raven’?”

Clarke noticed that Raven was a little unsteady on her feet as she stood up, a guy that Clarke didn’t know moved closer to her, but Raven held her hand out to stop him.

“I’ve got it.” She said, “seriously, you nearly lose your leg and suddenly people think you’re a fucking cripple.”

“The technical term would be disabled.” Lexa said as Raven made her way over to where Clarke was.

“Lucky for me I’m hot as hell and twice as smart then, huh, Commander.” Raven said, pushing past Lexa and pulling Clarke into a hug.

“Don’t forget modest, Reyes.” Lexa said with a smile.

“Yeah, yeah, that too.” Raven said, flashing Lexa a grin before she looked at Clarke again, “how the hell did you get here?”

“We sent a team out to look for places we could get medical supplies, hospitals, pharmacies, that kind of thing,” Clarke replied, “I thought it would be a good idea to come out to the one near here.”

“Still doesn’t explain… oh wait, you were the runner we saw with the drones.” Raven said, “Commander Lexa saves yet another damsel in distress, huh?”

“I wasn’t in distress.” Clarke replied.

“Maybe I should’ve just left you there then,” Lexa said, a smirk tugging at her lips, “I mean, I’m sure you would’ve been fine with your whole single clip of ammunition.”

“I don’t remember that being an option,” Clarke said as she looked at Lexa, “I’m pretty sure my options were either come with you or you’d shoot me in the head.”

“You threatened to shoot her in the head?” Raven asked as she turned her attention to Lexa.

“Technically, no,” Lexa replied, shaking her head a little, “I said if I was going to leave her there I would shoot her in the head, it’d hurt less than becoming a meal for whoever found her.”

“She’s got a point.” Raven said with a shrug, looking back to Clarke, “were you out there on your own? You said we…”

“Not on my own, no,” Clarke replied, shaking her head, “there’s a group of us, about 50 of us.”

“Where?” Lexa asked as she looked at the blonde.

“About three days away from here.” Clarke said.

“Can you show me on a map?” the brunette asked, motioning for Clarke to follow her over to one of the tables, Octavia, Raven and Anya following on behind.

Lexa grabbed one of the maps they had and laid it out on the table, pointing to a spot on the map.

“We’re here.” She said, glancing at Clarke who was standing close to her right hand side, “I found you here…”

Lexa pointed to where the pharmacy was on the map.

“Okay,” Clarke said with a nod, running her fingers back over the map in the approximate direction she had come from, “I came from this direction. I remember passing nearby this town… Here. That’s where we are.”

Lexa glanced up at Anya, as she saw where Clarke had pointed.

“What?” Clarke asked, looking between the two of them.

Lexa sighed as Anya narrowed her eyes and shook her head a little.

“What are you not telling me?” the blonde asked, this time focusing her attention on Lexa.

“Commander…” Anya said, a slight warning tone to her voice.

“She needs to know, Anya.” Lexa replied moving off to the side of the room where she started searching through a stack of papers that Clarke couldn’t see.

“This isn’t going to help anything, Lexa.” Anya said, walking over to where the brunette was now standing, “you tell her and she’s going to go back there and tell them, it’ll cause nothing but panic. If they’re all okay where they are for now, they should stay there.”

Lexa didn’t reply, she picked up a transparent sheet of plastic and carried it over to the table. The closer she got to the table, Clarke could see there was another map drawn onto the plastic. Lexa laid it over the map that was on the table.

“About 6 months ago, it was decided that we would spread out into teams and look for other survivors,” Lexa said with a sigh, “three teams were sent towards where your people are.”

She pointed at the area Clarke had previously pointed at on the map. The transparent overlay showed the area as a blocked out area of red.

“What does that mean?” Clarke asked.

“That’s a no go area for us.” Octavia replied, noticing how Lexa was clenching her jaw and had got a faraway look in her eyes, as she often did when she remembered the events that had happened.

“Why?” Clarke asked, looking around the small group that had gathered around the table.

“Out of the three teams, only one car returned,” Anya said, “12 people were sent, 2 came back, and out of those 2 only one survived.”

“Our science team was looking into some data and they think that the virus outbreak in this area originated from somewhere in that block of red,” Raven said, “we don’t know exactly where. There used to be a government research center nearby, it’s not on any maps. The reports that we have from that day indicate that the people they came across were hostile to outsiders.”

“It wasn’t us.” Clarke said, her eyes a little wider as she again looked around the group.

“The hostiles in that area, the ones you call biters, are…” Lexa started to say, “Controlled, somehow. They seem to have a higher cognitive function than the others. They work in packs, they also work with the uninfected, who have guns.”

“You were there?” Clarke asked, looking at Lexa, who nodded slowly.

“If your people are safe, then they should stay where they are.” Anya said, looking at Clarke, “it’s not worth the risk of life to send teams out there.”

“We’re not safe, not really.” The blonde said, “in the last 4 months we’ve lost 20 people. We just assumed that they got caught by biters while they were out looking for resources.”

Lexa swallowed hard as she looked at the map again, letting Clarke’s words sink in.

“If my people are being taken…” Clarke started to say, stopping herself when she heard an alarm going off from Lexa’s watch.

The brunette looked down at the watch before stopping the alarm.

“I have to go,” she said, looking around the group before she looked at Clarke, “we’ll talk about this more later. Raven, see what you can find out, Octavia, show Clarke where she can stay, there’s an empty room down the hallway from mine that is suitable.”

Both Raven and Octavia nodded as Lexa turned and walked out of the room. Clarke stood and watched as Lexa walked away from the room.

“She needs to pick Aden up.” Raven said, earning herself a glare from Anya, “what?”

“I’m not sure that Clarke needs to know that.” Anya said.

“Is Aden her son?” the blonde asked.

“Yes and no.” Raven replied.

“It’s complicated.” Octavia said at the same time.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“Well look who’s here.” Bellamy said as he walked into the control room to find Clarke sitting at the table with Octavia and Raven.

“Hey Bell.” Clarke said as he put his arms around her and kissed the top of her head, before taking a seat next to his younger sister.

“When O said you were here I just didn’t believe it,” he said with a smile, “we’ve lost so many people…”

“I think we all have.” The blonde replied with a sad smile.

“Your folks okay?” Bellamy asked.

“Yeah,” Clarke said with a nod, “mom is still doing her doctor thing, and when I left dad was trying to work out a way to build a water filtration system or something. We have a stream that runs through the center of our camp, but my mom is starting to freak out about how the virus is transmitted, whether it’s just through bite or if it could be carried in water as well, and my dad being my dad is trying to keep her happy.”

“How’s everyone else doing, Wells, Monty, Jasper.” Bellamy said.

“Monty and Jasper are good,” the blonde replied, “they’ve got an alcohol still built in one of the buildings we have, calling it a business venture, though nobody actually pays for anything. Wells… he, er…”

“I’m sorry Clarke.” Bellamy said, knowing how close Clarke and Wells had been growing up.

“His dad is taking it pretty hard,” Clarke said, “throwing himself into trying to organize everything for everyone, it’s tough.”

“It’s never easy,” Bellamy said with a sad smile “we just have to get on and do what we can for those that are still with us.”

“Someone has actually been listening to Lexa.” Octavia said with a laugh, shaking her head slightly.

“That’s because she actually has a point on this, and if anyone knows about pushing everything else aside for people that are still here, it’s her.” Bellamy replied as he looked at his sister.

“What’s her story?” Clarke asked as she looked at her friends.

“Her story is…” Octavia started to say.

“It’s her story.” Raven said, “sorry, Clarke, not our story to tell.”

“Is she really in charge of all this?” the blonde asked in reply.

“Yep,” Raven said with a nod, “kept our asses alive more times than I can remember. If it wasn’t for her I’d probably be dead rather than just have a fucked up leg.”

“What happened with that?” Clarke asked.

“We were outside the fence one day, got word that some more hostiles were headed this way,” Bellamy said, taking over the story, “Lexa ordered us all back inside, they can’t get through the fence, nor can they get over it, though it seems to take them a while to figure that out. Raven tripped, people were shooting everywhere while running…”

“Took one to the back as I was running,” Raven said with a shrug, “Lexa nearly got herself bitten dragging my ass back inside the fence.”

“We actually thought she had been bitten for a while.” Octavia said, “there was blood everywhere, but she was more focused on us getting Raven to medical than she was about herself.”

“We like to call it Lexa’s self-destructive phase,” Bellamy said with a sigh, “lasted about 3 months after…”

“She mentioned something about being out near where my people are, and from what Anya said she was the only one to survive.” Clarke replied.

“Two people made it back that day,” Bellamy said with a small nod, “only one made it through decontamination though.”

“Her name was Costia.” Lexa said from where she was standing in the doorway, “she was Aden’s mom.”

Bellamy, Raven and Octavia all looked really uncomfortable and muttered something about getting back to work as Lexa walked over to the table where Clarke was sitting. Clarke didn’t say anything as Lexa sat down, she just waited to see if the brunette was going to continue.

“After the initial outbreak she was stationed here with my unit,” Lexa said, her eyes fixed on her hands that were now clenched in front of her on the table, “she wasn’t a fighter, she was a medic. She only came out with us in case we found anyone that was hurt. The day we left she promised Aden that she’d be back in a few days, he was still too young to understand but as far as Costia was concerned it was still a promise. I promised him that I would take care of her, and I couldn’t.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Lexa.” Clarke said softly.

“I know that now, but…” Lexa said, shaking her head a little as she stopped talking, before she took a deep breath, “I dragged her from where they were trying to eat her alive, got her in the backseat of the car, drove back here. I took a shot to the leg and almost took a shot to the chest, but Costia had yelled at me that day until I put the vest on. ‘It won’t stop anything trying to eat you, but it’ll stop you getting shot’ she said. I knew when I got her back here that she’d been bitten, I knew what I had to do, but I couldn’t do it. I should have taken her life myself, ended it outside, but I couldn’t.”

Again Clarke didn’t say anything, she continued to wait until Lexa was ready to tell her anything more.

“I stood there, in that small corridor we were in earlier, and I listened to her scream.” Lexa said, “For three months that noise is all I could hear when I closed my eyes, when I tried to sleep it grated in my brain. I’ll never forget it.”

“What changed after three months?” the blonde asked, “Bellamy mentioned that your self-destructive phase lasted three months…”

“Aden,” Lexa said with a small smile, “I was sitting in my room one day, feeling sorry for myself, and Ontari walks in with him, just sits him down on the floor and walks out.”

“Were you and Costia…?” Clarke said, not really knowing how to end the sentence.

“We were trying,” Lexa replied with a nod, “turns out an apocalypse isn’t really the best time to try and start a new relationship. She’d always said that if anything happened to her, she wanted me to take care of Aden. It took me three months to remember that promise. And when I was sitting in my room looking at him sitting there on the floor, I cried, really cried for the first time. He pushed himself up to his feet, wobbled over to me and wiped the tears from my face with his tiny little hands.”

“He gave you something to fight for.” Clarke said with a soft smile.

“No,” Lexa said, shaking her head a little, “he gave me something to live for. I already had people to fight for, my unit, everyone here. But I didn’t care if I died fighting for them. He gave me a reason to make sure that I always make it back.”

“I know that feeling,” the blonde said, “I mean I don’t have a really cute kid waiting for me, but I do have family that I would like to get back to.”

“I was thinking about that while I put Aden down for a nap,” Lexa said, “do you think your people would move here? You said your mom is a doctor, right, we can always use more doctors.”

“My mom is a doctor, yes,” Clarke replied, “my dad is an engineer. We have some pretty skilled people; Monty is great with anything tech related so I’m sure he could help Raven with whatever mad idea’s she has.”

“Do you think they’d be interested in moving here?” Lexa asked.

“I don’t know,” Clarke said with a sigh, “they’re pretty set on making it on their own, but from what you said earlier we’d be more likely to make it at all if we were away from there.”

“If your people are being taken, it’s only a question of time before they either take everyone, or attack your camp.” Lexa said, “I know that sounds harsh, but it’s the truth.”

“I know, I get it.” the blonde said, “my dad might be the best person to talk to about it, if you can get me there…”

“How about if we compromise,” Lexa replied, “if I can get a long range radio to your camp.”

“That could work.” Clarke said with a small nod.

“I know it’s a lot to ask, Clarke, but I don’t want to have to go back there unless I know there’s a reason,” Lexa said, “getting you back there would be dangerous, getting you back there only to find that your people aren’t interested would be… I can’t risk leaving Aden alone unless there’s a good reason for it, and I’m not going to risk anymore of my people on a possibility. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, I understand.” Clarke said with a small smile, “guess I’ll be staying here for a little while longer then.”

“You can stay here for as long as you want to.” Lexa said with a smile of her own, before she stood up, “I’ll get Raven to attach a long range radio to one of our drones and send it to your camp tomorrow with a message for your father.”

Clarke nodded a little.

“I need to get back before Aden wakes up and I’m not there.” Lexa said, “if you need anything, my room is two doors down from the one that Octavia showed you earlier, my door is always open, quite literally until about midnight, after that all you have to do is knock, I’m not a deep sleeper.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most people seemed to want this to continue, so here's part two. Don't forget to comment and let me know what you think about where this is going, all thoughts are welcome :)

Clarke was lying on the bed in the room that Octavia had shown her to a little earlier that day, the room consisted of a sofa, a bed and a small chest of drawers. Octavia had explained to her that the room hadn’t been used in a while and someone had put some clean clothes in the drawers for her to use. The blonde had taken a shower and changed into a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt before deciding to try and get some sleep.

As she lay there on the bed she was thinking about what Lexa had talked to her about earlier that day, getting a radio to her dad to talk to him about whether her people would be interested in moving into the military facility. Clarke honestly had no idea what they would say, they all seemed pretty intent on making it on their own, and the lack of help from the government after the outbreak had made them all a little wary of trusting anyone with government links, Clarke assumed that would include the military.

Trying to sleep was proving to be pretty much impossible, the facility was really quiet, which wasn’t the problem. The issue was the air circulation unit in Clarke’s room, she assumed that it would make a noise, but she hadn’t expected it to buzz in the way it did. The small clock on the wall indicated that it was almost 11:30pm, Clarke decided to give up on sleeping and take a walk, hoping that she could clear her head a little.

She walked from her room and started to make her way down the corridor, she passed a closed door before reaching one that was still open. As she neared the open door, which she assumed was Lexa’s room as the brunette had told her that her door was quite literally open till about midnight, she heard music. It was quiet, but definitely there, from what Clarke could hear it was Disney songs. A small smile tugged at her lips as she thought about Lexa sitting in her room listening to Disney music, the badass Commander having a soft spot for animated movies amused her, but also warmed her heart a little.

She quietly walked up to the door, stopping before going in as she saw the brunette sitting on the sofa in the room, her head resting back and her eyes closed. Clarke could see there were two other room attached to the main one, both doors were open, one of the rooms was dark. The other had a small light, one which caused stars to swirl around the room, from where she was standing she could see Aden asleep on his back with his arms stretched over his head.

“Disney songs, huh?” Clarke asked, leaning against the doorway, smirking as Lexa jumped as she opened her eyes.

“Aden can’t sleep with the quiet.” Lexa replied, sitting up, stretching her arms above her head as she rotated her neck.

Clarke bit her lower lip slightly as her eyes travelled down Lexa’s body, stopping on the small expanse of skin revealed on her stomach as the brunette stretched. She shook her head a little, knowing that now was so not the time to be having any kind of thoughts about Lexa, especially not those kinds of thoughts. Luckily she had her thoughts back in relatively safe territory by the time Lexa looked at her.

“Everything okay?” Lexa asked.

“Can’t sleep,” Clarke replied with a small smile, “the air circulation unit in my room, or at least I assume that’s what it is, is buzzing. Pretty unnoticeable when there’s other noise, but when everything else is really quiet, it’s pretty loud.”

“It shouldn’t be buzzing at all.” Lexa said, her brow furrowed a little as she stood up, “show me?”

“What about Aden?” Clarke asked, looking at the young boy who was still fast asleep.

“He’ll be fine for a few minutes.” Lexa said, walking to the door.

Clarke nodded a little before turning and walking with Lexa to her room. When the pair walked into the room, Lexa stood in the center of the room and looked at Clarke.

“Close the door a second.” She said.

Clarke did as Lexa asked and closed the door. The brunette tilted her head slightly as she listened, there was a certain buzz.

“Well that’s irritating.” Lexa said, her brow furrowed a little, “I’ll have someone come and take a look at it in the morning, all our mechanics and techs will be asleep now.”

“Thanks.” Clarke replied with a smile, as she opened the door again, “I noticed a television in your room…”

“We have a movie archive that Raven set up,” Lexa said with a nod, “well movies, shows, documentaries. It’s pretty much like Netflix, but it’s all free and obviously isn’t going to be added to any time soon. It adds a little bit of normalcy for the kids, in a situation that is obviously anything but normal.”

“It pretty much is the norm now though, isn’t it?” Clarke said, “this is our life.”

“I suppose.” Lexa replied with a shrug, “though I like to think that maybe it won’t always be like this. Something at some point will change.”

“You really think so?” Clarke asked.

“I have to,” Lexa said, “otherwise what’s the point. I mean, I know that even if we do come out of this, the world is going to be pretty much changed forever, but, I don’t know, maybe things will be okay again someday. Do you want to come and watch something, or just hang out and talk, it’ll save you from the constant buzzing?”

“Sure.” Clarke replied with a nod.

 

x-x-x-x

 

While the movie was playing, neither girl seemed to interested in watching it, as Clarke asked about the paintings that were on the walls, all done by Aden of course. They talked about the little community that Clarke’s people had set up, how it worked, what the structure of it was in terms of who was in charge. Lexa stored all the information that Clarke gave her in the back of her mind, in case she needed it at a later point.

Something told her that she could trust the blonde, she had no idea what it was, but Lexa had always been someone who followed her instincts, and those instincts told her that Clarke was someone she could trust. She didn’t know about Clarke’s people though, as it’s impossible to judge someone’s character if you haven’t met them.

Part way through the movie, Clarke had laid down on the sofa at the other end from where Lexa was sitting. The brunette could see that it probably wasn’t that comfortable, so while they continued talking she lifted Clarke’s legs, putting them over her own. By the time the movie finished, the talking had stopped and Clarke was out like a light.

Lexa lifted Clarke’s feet up, standing up, before softly placing the blonde’s legs back on the sofa. She then went into her bedroom and grabbed the blanket that was folded on the bottom of her bed, before going back into the living room and softly laying it over Clarke’s sleeping form. Lexa knew Aden would have questions in the morning, but Clarke spending the night on their sofa was a better option than the blonde being kept awake all night by the loud buzzing in her room.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Clarke could hear hushed voices as she woke up, it took her a few moments to realise where she was as she opened her eyes. She saw Aden trying to put on a t-shirt, his little arms going in the wrong hole.

“Wrong hole, bud.” Lexa said quietly with a smile as she crouched down in front of him and helped him put his shirt on properly, “there, all done.”

“Is Clarke coming outside?” Aden asked.

“Maybe,” Lexa said, “go put your sneakers on.”

While Aden went back into his room, Lexa sighed as she stood up, before turning to look at Clarke. Seeing the blonde was now awake, she smiled a little.

“Morning.” She said.

“Sorry for falling asleep.” Clarke replied, sitting up, rubbing her eyes a little, “you should have woken me up.”

“You wouldn’t have been able to sleep with that buzzing noise,” Lexa said, “at least here you managed to sleep.”

“Best nights’ sleep I’ve had in a while honestly.” Clarke said.

“It is a comfy sofa.” Lexa said with a small laugh.

Aden came back out of his room with his sneakers on, the laces untied, he smiled shyly at Clarke.

“Hey, Aden.” Clarke said with a smile of her own, “need a hand with those?”

Aden looked at Lexa, who smiled a little, before he looked back at Clarke and nodded.

“I’m just going to get changed, then we can go to breakfast.” Lexa said, ruffling Aden’s hair before she walked to her room, closing the door behind her.

“So,” Clarke said, standing up from the sofa, patting it so Aden would sit down, “where do you get breakfast around here?”

“In the teria.” Aden said, climbing up onto the sofa before turning around to face Clarke.

“The cafeteria?” Clarke asked, causing Aden to nod as she started to tie his laces, “I don’t know where that is, would you show me?”

Aden furrowed his brow a little, obviously thinking about it, which made Clarke smile because he was being so very cute. He nodded.

“Great.” Clarke said with a smile.

 

x-x-x-x

 

After eating breakfast with Lexa and Aden, where they ended up sitting with Raven, Octavia and Bellamy, Clarke stood with Raven behind a group of 20 kids, all of varying ages, waiting for Lexa to hand out the guns before they went outside.

“So this happens every morning?” Clarke asked as she looked at Raven.

“Yeah,” Raven replied with a nod, “it’s not healthy for the kids to stay cooped up downstairs all the time. Plus, this way they get to burn off a little energy as well.”

“And this is safe?” Clarke asked.

“As safe as it can be,” Raven said, “there’s always someone sitting as lookout on top of the building, that way we know if anything nasty is heading our way. We always get a warning, time to get the kids back inside. Plus, the fence keeps them out, once they realize that the current increases the higher they try to climb.”

Lexa got to where Raven and Clarke were standing, she handed Raven a gun before holding Clarke’s gun out to the blonde, who took it with a small nod. Then Lexa walked back to the front of the group, before opening the door that led to the stairs to the surface.

When they made it to the surface Clarke squinted her eyes for a few minutes before she got used to the natural light. Then she stood watching as the kids all started running around, some playing with a ball that they got out of the building. Bellamy was sitting up on the roof of the building, keeping an eye out on the surrounding land, Lexa and the others, some who Clarke still hadn’t met properly, all stood watch as the kids had fun.

A crash caught her attention, and Raven’s as well.

“Hey,” Raven called over to the kids who were playing ball, “be careful over there.”

“Sorry, Raven.” One of the kids replied, going to pick up the ball which had been kicked against a metal box that was near the fence.

“What is that?” Clarke asked, walking over to Raven.

“That’s where the circuits are for the fence,” Raven replied, “They get damaged, we’re kinda screwed.”

Clarke nodded a little, before walking closer to the fence, figuring as she had a gun she should probably help with keeping watch.

It wasn’t much later that she heard Bellamy shout something.

“Incoming.” He said.

“Okay kids,” Anya shouted, getting the attention of the kids, “that’s all we have time for right now.”

Clarke watched as the kids all started filing back into the building again, as Lexa climbed up the side of the building to where Bellamy was.

“Shit.” She said, “I count at least 11.”

Some of the others went back down to the facility with the children, everyone else readied their guns.

“I thought you said they can’t get over the fence.” Clarke said as Lexa and Bellamy both climbed down from the roof.

“Shoot them while they’re at a distance,” Lexa replied, “in this heat it doesn’t take long for the bodies to really start to smell. The last time we shot them near the fence it took us three days to move the bodies before the kids could come outside again.”

“Makes sense I guess.” Clarke said.

“Time your shots.” Lexa said, looking around the small group that were still outside, “make them count.”

While everyone was focused on the biters Bellamy had seen, they didn’t see the others coming from the opposite side. A rattling sound attracted Clarke’s attention, she turned and saw a biter trying to climb the fence.

“Er, Lexa…” she said, pointing the gun at the biter.

“Little busy here, Clarke.” Lexa said, shooting another biter.

“We have a problem.” Clarke said, shooting the biter that was climbing the fence, making Lexa turn and look.

“Shit,” Lexa said, “Raven, why the fuck isn’t the fence working?”

Raven made her way over to the box which contained the circuits, seeing that one of the circuit breakers had been knocked out and was slightly bent.

“Can you fix it?” Lexa asked as Raven held the circuit breaker up for her to see.

“I don’t know.” Raven replied honestly.

“Try.” Lexa said with a sigh, shooting at more biters that started to climb the fence, “make sure that door is closed.”

Bellamy ran over and closed the door to the building, before coming back and shooting.

“Where are they coming from?” Clarke asked.

“No idea.” Lexa replied, her gun aimed at the biter that was nearly over the fence, “Raven, we’re running out of time.”

“Working on it.” Raven said.

Lexa shot the biter, causing the body to fall inside the fence.

Clarke looked around to see that there were biters coming at them from all sides, her hand started to shake as she shot another.

“They’re multiplying.” Bellamy shouted.

“Well obviously they aren’t,” Lexa replied, shooting yet another one, “pretty sure they don’t respawn, this is not Call of Duty, Bell.”

“Obviously not,” Clarke said, “that has an off switch.”

Three more biters climbed over the fence. Lexa’s heart was pounding in her chest as she thought about the people downstairs, the kids. She shot two of the biters, turning her gun to get the third seeing it coming up quickly behind Clarke.

“Clarke!” she shouted.

The blonde tried to turn, but wasn’t quick enough, she closed her eyes as she felt fingers clawing at her arms. As the nasty smell of decomposition got closer to her face she heard another shot, feeling a splash of liquid against her face, she opened her eyes and watched as the biter fell, a bullet hole directly in the center of its head. She turned and looked at Lexa, who was standing with her gun still pointed in Clarke’s direction, taking deep breaths.

“Raven, get that fence working or you’re going over it as a distraction.” Lexa said, tearing her eyes away from Clarke and refocusing on the job at hand.

“Really feeling the love there, Lex,” Raven said, taking one last look at the circuit breaker, “thanks.”

She put the circuit breaker back in its rightful place and a few seconds later there was a large buzzing sound as the fence sprang back into life, all the biters who were climbing it were thrown backwards.

“Everyone okay?” Bellamy asked, looking around the small group.

Most people nodded.

“Clarke?” he asked.

“I’m bleeding…” the blonde said, looking at her arm.

“Make sure they’re dead.” Lexa said to Bellamy, motioning to the biters outside the fence, before she used the strap on her gun to put it over her shoulder and walked over to where Clarke was, “let me see…”

While Lexa was looking at the injuries on Clarke’s arm they heard the roar of engines in the distance. Bellamy looked down the scope of his weapon and saw three large trucks driving away at speed.

“Either these fuckers can drive, or they were brought here.” He said, walking over to Lexa.

“Someone is testing our defenses.” Lexa replied, her focus still on Clarke.

“You think it’s…” Bellamy started to say.

“I don’t know.” Lexa said, interrupting him, “it’s a bit out of their way isn’t it?”

“Or they’re branching out.” Bellamy replied with a shrug, “we’ll figure it out, they’re gone for now anyway.”

“I want those bodies away from the fence,” Lexa said, “bury them, burn them, I don’t care, I want them gone.”

“On it.” Bellamy said as he walked away.

“So, what’s the verdict,” Clarke said, avoiding looking at Lexa due to how close the brunette was standing to her, “am I going to start eating your face?”

“If you do,” Lexa said, backing away from Clarke a little, “it won’t be because you’ve been bitten.”

“Well that’s always reassuring.” Clarke replied, laughing a little at the smirk that was pulling at the brunette’s lips.

“We’re going to need to warn the kids to not kick the ball near the circuit breakers.” Raven said, walking over to where Clarke and Lexa were standing, “pretty sure that’s what caused the damage.”

“I’ll make sure they know.” Lexa said, her eyes still focused on the blonde.

“I’m going to go help Bell.” Raven said, patting Lexa on the back as she walked past her.

“We should probably get you cleaned up.” Lexa said to Clarke.

“Blood splatter not attractive, huh?” the blonde asked, causing Lexa to laugh.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Later that day, after dinner, Clarke was sitting in the control room with Raven, Anya and Lincoln. They were waiting to see if the radio had survived the journey to the compound that Clarke’s people had set up. Lexa walked into the room carrying a bottle of water and some painkillers for Clarke. She didn’t say anything as she put them down on the table in front of the blonde.

“My hero.” Clarke said with a smile, causing Lexa to shake her head a little as she laughed.

The radio next to Raven crackled as it came to life.

“This is Jake Griffin.” Said Clarke’s dad over the radio.

“My dad…” Clarke said, standing up from the table.

Lexa walked over to the radio, picking it up she pushed the button on the side of it.

“Mr Griffin, my name is Commander Lexa Woods.” She said.

“Commander?” Jake asked, “you military?”

“Yes sir.” Lexa replied.

“How did you find us?” Jake said.

“I found your daughter yesterday while she was out at a pharmacy near our facility,” Lexa said, “she told us where we could find you.”

“Clarke?” Jake asked, “is she okay?”

“She’s fine, Mr Griffin,” Lexa said, looking at Clarke, sharing a small smile with the blonde, “would you like to talk to her?”

“Yes.” Jake said.

Lexa handed Clarke the radio and took a step back, giving the blonde some space.

“Hey dad.” Clarke said into the radio.

“Clarke,” Jake replied, the relief clear in his voice, “where are you?”

“Funny story,” Clarke said, “you remember that place that was rumored to be like a cult hideout or something, well, yeah, it’s not. It’s this crazy military underground facility.”

“Are you safe?” Jake asked.

“Yes,” Clarke replied with a small nod, “I’m safe. Octavia, Bellamy and Raven are all here, actually, which kind of ties into why I needed to talk to you. I’m thinking it would be safer if everyone there, moved here.”

“The government and military abandoned us, Clarke.” He said.

“That’s not necessarily true,” Clarke said, “it’s a little more complicated than that. You remember the people we’ve lost in the last couple of weeks, well we’re thinking that they maybe weren’t killed by biters…”

“Clarke…” Jake said.

“I’m serious,” Clarke replied, “just hear me out. Raven said there was some government facility near where you are, Lexa’s people were sent out there to look for survivors and… well let’s just say it didn’t end well. Our people may not have been killed, dad, they may have been taken.”

“By who, Clarke?” Jake asked.

“Now that we don’t know,” Clarke said with a sigh, “but if they’re taking our people… you guys coming here might be our best shot, dad.”

“I’ll talk to your mother and the others,” Jake replied, “see what they say. Am I going to be able to reach you on this radio tomorrow?”

Clarke looked at Lexa, the brunette nodded.

“Yeah,” Clarke said, “you can reach me on that radio. Please try and convince them, dad, you’ll all be safe here.”

“I’ll see what I can do honey, okay.” Jake said.

“Okay.” Clarke replied.

“I love you.” He said.

“Love you too.” Clarke said, sighing before she put the radio down.

“How likely are your mother and the others to agree to this?” Lexa asked as she looked at Clarke.

“I don’t know,” Clarke replied with another sigh, “you heard my dad, they don’t trust government or the military.”

“Because they think we abandoned them?” Anya asked in reply.

“Pretty much, yeah.” Clarke said with a nod.

“What if they don’t agree?” Raven asked, looking around the small group, “What happens then?”

“I don’t know,” Lexa replied, “can we just sit here knowing that they’re in danger? Will our consciences’ let us do that? We signed up to the military to protect America, and its citizens, I’m not sure if I can stand by and do nothing.”

“But we can’t go out there and force them to come here,” Anya said, “we do that and it could endanger everything that we have here.”

“We’ll figure it out.” Clarke said.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexa and Clarke get a little closer, Lexa is a total disaster, Aden is adorable and Abby gets in contact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, here's the update for this one. It's shorter than the last couple of parts, but it seemed to end naturally. Drop me a comment, let me know what you think. Things should get moving pretty quickly after this part.

 

When Clarke had returned to her room she had found that the buzzing noise from the air circulation unit had disappeared, she also found that opposite the sofa there was now a small unit with a television on it. After getting a shower she sat on the sofa and looked through the movies and television shows that were on the TV. Lexa had been right the night before, when she had said it was like Netflix, it amused Clarke to think that Raven had gone through everything that she could find to put the database together.

Just as she settled on something to watch there was a knock at her door. She opened it to find Lexa standing there with a bottle of water, some more painkillers and a roll of bandage in her hands.

“Hi.” Clarke said with a small smile.

“Hey,” Lexa replied with a smile of her own, “I just wanted to check that everything’s okay…”

“Yeah,” Clarke said, stepping back into the room, letting Lexa in, “the buzzing noise is gone, which is great. And I now have a television.”

“There was one in one of our storage rooms, I got Raven to bring it here, thought it might help if you couldn’t sleep or something.” Lexa replied, “she must have brought it in when she fixed the air unit.”

“Thank you.” Clarke said with another small smile.

“Oh, and I brought you these,” Lexa said, holding the painkillers and water out to Clarke, “Nyko, our doctor, said that it would probably be a good idea to strap your arm before you sleep, something about the wound catching while you sleep.”

“I’m going to have a problem with that.” Clarke said.

“How so?” Lexa asked in reply.

“I’m actually left handed, and the thing is towards the top of my left arm, so…” Clarke said, “Unless I could get some help with it…”

“I think Nyko has just gone to bed.” Lexa replied, “I could help.”

“That’d be great.” Clarke said, smirking a little at the slight blush that covered Lexa’s cheeks.

Clarke had to stop herself laughing as she walked over towards the sofa and heard Lexa mutter something to herself about being an idiot. Clarke took the hooded sweat jacket off as she sat down, she was actually pretty thankful that she’d put on a vest top rather than a t-shirt after her shower, or the t-shirt would have to come off as well.

Lexa shook her head a little as she walked over to the sofa, she was usually all cool, calm and collected, but something about Clarke made her head a little muddled. As Clarke took the jacket off the first thing Lexa realized was that the blonde wasn’t wearing a bra, which made perfect sense as she’d obviously just showered and was settling down to watch something before going to sleep.

‘ _Head out of the gutter, Lexa’_ the brunette thought to herself as she reached the sofa.

“You’ll have to make sure it’s not too tight.” Clarke said as Lexa unwrapped the bandage.

“Sorry, what?” Lexa asked, her head so not where it should be at that moment.

“The bandage,” Clarke said, biting the inside of her cheek to stop herself laughing at the look on Lexa’s face, “they tend to tighten up overnight, so you’ll have to make sure it’s not too tight or it’ll cut down the blood flow in my arm while I sleep… my…”

“Mom’s a doctor.” Lexa said with a nod, “I remember.”

As Lexa started to strap Clarke’s arm the silence in the room was getting a little too much for the blonde, she needed to talk about something to stop herself thinking things that she probably shouldn’t.

“How’s Aden?” she asked.

“He’s good,” Lexa replied, “he’s asleep.”

“More Disney songs?” the blonde asked.

“Yep.” Lexa said with a small laugh, “I’ve got little voices in my head asking me if I want to build a snowman while I’m asleep.”

“Maybe it’s time to lay off the Disney songs for a while then.” Clarke said with a laugh of her own.

“Maybe.” Lexa replied.

“How old was he when…” Clarke said.

“When Costia died?” Lexa asked, causing Clarke to nod, “he was nearly 2.”

“He’s a great kid.” Clarke replied with a soft smile as she looked at Lexa.

“Yeah, he is.” Lexa said with a small smile and a nod, “he’s had a tough year, not that you’d know it.”

There was something in Lexa’s eyes that let Clarke know that it hadn’t been the easiest year for her either.

“It can’t have been easy for you either,” the blonde said, “looking after a kid.”

“Would you believe me if I say that Aden is actually the easy part,” Lexa said with a huff of a laugh as she shook her head a little, “everything is so simple with him. But every decision I make, every time I put him to bed at night, I can’t help but think would Costia be doing any of this differently…”

“You do the best you can with what you know,” Clarke said, “and I know I’ve only been here a couple of days, but you’re doing a great job, Lexa.”

“Sometimes I just…” Lexa said with a sigh, as she finished strapping Clarke’s arm and sat own on the arm of the sofa, “I can’t help but wonder if this is the right place to raise kids. Not just Aden, you know, all of them. They’re underground sometimes 22 hours a day.”

“They’re safe.” Clarke said, putting her jacket back on before turning on the sofa to look at Lexa, “if there’s one thing I know about being above ground, it’s that it’s not safe. No matter how safe you think you are, how big the walls are that you build, there’s always a weak spot.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Lexa said with a nod, “that’s not too tight is it?”

“Nah, it’s good, thank you.” Clarke said with a smile.

“Hopefully you can get some sleep tonight.” Lexa said with a smile of her own as she stood up.

“I got some sleep last night.” The blonde replied, “you have a pretty comfortable sofa.”

“Well, if you can’t sleep, you know if you need Disney songs,” Lexa said with a small smirk, “you know where it is.”

“I’ll bear that in mind.” Clarke said, a small smile pulling at her lips.

“Okay,” Lexa said with a nod as she reached the door, “Goodnight, Clarke.”

“Goodnight, Lexa.” Clarke replied.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Clarke was woken up early the next morning by someone banging on her door. She grumbled as she got out of bed, not even bothering to turn the light on as she walked over to the door.

“Your mother is blowing up my damn radio.” Raven muttered as Clarke opened the door.

“Sorry, Raven.” Clarke said, her eyes squinting at the brightness from the hallway lights.

“What’s going on?” Lexa asked with a yawn as she walked towards Clarke’s door.

“Clarke’s mom has been yelling all kinds of profanities down my radio for the last twenty minutes.” Raven grumbled, “something about kidnapping her daughter or something, I muted it out, but I’m thinking someone should talk to her.”

“That’s probably a good idea.” Clarke said, “lead the way.”

“I’ll come with you.” Lexa replied, “just let me grab a jumper.”

“You don’t have to.” Clarke said with a small smile, “go back to sleep.”

“I’m awake now,” Lexa said with a shrug, “and I’m guessing your mom will want to talk to the person who kidnapped her daughter.”

As Lexa went back into her room, Raven looked at Clarke.

“What?” the blonde asked.

“You and the Commander, huh?” Raven asked in reply.

“No idea what you’re talking about.” Clarke replied, shaking her head a little.

“Right,” Raven said with a nod, “course not.”

Lexa came back out of her room, pulling on a sweatshirt, pushing the sleeves up to her elbows.

“Ready?” she asked, looking between Raven and Clarke.

“Ready to hear you getting your ass chewed by Clarke’s mom?” Raven asked with a smirk, “you betcha.”

“She’s not that bad.” Clarke said, looking at Lexa as the three of them walked towards the control room.

“You’re forgetting that time in high school when she caught you making out with the girl in the front yard?” Raven asked, not looking back at Clarke and Lexa, “she grounded you for three months for ‘causing a spectacle’.”

“It was three weeks,” Clarke replied, “and are you forgetting that our neighbors at the time were 70-year-old evangelical Christians?”

“Oh wow,” Lexa said with a laugh, “I bet they loved that.”

“They actually came by the next day and asked my mom if she wanted them to take me to church,” Clarke said with a laugh of her own, “apparently God would forgive me.”

As they walked into the room Raven walked over to the radio and turned the volume back up again.

“This is extremely immature of you, Raven,” they heard Abby say, “I thought you had grown out of your childish phase.”

“Never growing out of that one, Abby,” Raven said with a smirk as she picked up the radio, “it’s always so much fun.”

“Are you going to let me talk to Clarke?” Abby asked.

“Would it kill you to say please?” Raven asked in reply.

Lexa laughed as Clarke sighed.

“Give me the radio, Raven.” The blonde said, shaking her head a little.

Raven grinned as she held the radio out.

“Say please, Princess.” She said.

“Please.” Clarke said, rolling her eyes.

“See,” Raven said, handing her the radio, “that wasn’t so hard, was it.”

Clarke nudged Raven a little as she moved to sit down.

“Young people today,” Raven said, as she looked at Lexa, “they have no manners.”

“Mom.” Clarke said into the radio.

“Clarke, honey,” Abby said, “are you okay?”

“Yeah, mom, I’m good.” Clarke said with a nod, though she knew her mother couldn’t see her.

“Where are you?” Abby asked, “we’ll come and get you.”

“Did you talk to dad?” Clarke asked in reply.

“He told us that you’re in some kind of military facility,” Abby said, “He didn’t say if you were there by choice.”

“I can leave any time I want, mom.” Clarke replied with a sigh, “but I think that it would be better for everyone if you all come here.”

“Clarke, you remember what happened the last time we went to the military for help,” Abby said with a sigh of her own, “we were told that there was nothing wrong and we should stay put.”

“It’s not safe for you to stay where you are, mom.” Clarke said, rolling her eyes a little as she looked at Lexa and Raven.

“Nothing can get over the walls we have built, you know that.” Abby replied.

“We both know that’s not true,” Clarke said, “and it’s not something coming over the walls that really bothers me, it’s what happens when we run out of everything. There are good people here mom, Raven’s here, Octavia and Bellamy are here, it’s run by good people.”

“It’s run by military people, Clarke.” Abby said.

“Mom,” Clarke said with a sigh, “I need you to trust me when I say you’re not safe where you are. Every time we send people out, less and less are coming back, it’s not the biters that are getting them, mom…”

“Is that what _they_ told you?” Abby asked.

“Yes,” Clarke replied, “but they’re right, mom. We think that all biters are the same, they aren’t. There’s something more going on out there.”

“The military is all that is left of the government, Clarke,” Abby said, “the people who lost control of a situation. It wouldn’t surprise me if they knew about this before it happened, if this is some kind of control measure to control the population.”

Clarke looked at Lexa who simply rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“You’ve been talking to Jaha again haven’t you,” Clarke said to her mom, “I swear that guy has a new theory every day.”

“It’s the only thing that makes any sense, Clarke.” Abby said.

“Nothing about this makes sense, mom,” Clarke replied, her anger starting to get the better of her, “why would the government release a virus into the population that they couldn’t control? Why would they have something out there to which there’s no known cure? Mom, listen to what you’re saying.”

Clarke felt a hand on her shoulder, she looked back to see Lexa standing there with a soft smile on her face. Raven narrowed her eyes as she looked at the interaction between the two of them.

“You need to come home, Clarke.” Abby said.

“No, mom, you need to listen to me,” Clarke replied, “if you stay where you are they are going to take every single person there. You need to give people a choice. Let them decide. If they want to stay there, then they can, but you need to be honest with them and step outside that protective bubble you believe you’ve created and take a look at the world around you.”

Clarke shook her head a little and put the radio down.

“I’m done.” She said, looking at Lexa.

Lexa nodded a little as Clarke stood up and walked over to where Raven was standing. Lexa picked up the radio.

“Mrs Griffin, my name’s Commander Lexa Woods.” Lexa said, “you may not trust me, because I’m military, but you need to trust your daughter. If you stay where you are, you will die. My people can help you.”

“Where were your people when we needed help to start with?” Abby asked.

“We did the best we could Mrs Griffin,” Lexa replied, “when the outbreak started our channels of communication were cut off, the lines of command became blurred, but we did the best we could.”

“Well it wasn’t good enough.” Abby said coldly, “tell me where you are and someone will come for my daughter.”

“I can’t do that, Mrs Griffin,” Lexa said, “If Clarke wants to leave, then she is free to leave at any time, but I am not giving out this location. This is a safe place, a sanctuary, we have children here, families, and I will not risk their safety. You are welcome to join us here, but we will bring you here.”

“And you really believe that you can protect us?” Abby asked.

“I believe that if we work together, we might just make it through this.” Lexa said, “the choice is yours.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

Later that day, Clarke was sitting on the roof of the building with Bellamy as the kids once again played outside.

“Raven told me that you talked to your mom,” Bellamy said, “she said it didn’t really go too well.”

“She seems to think they’re safest where they are.” Clarke said with a shrug, “Jaha seems to be convincing people that this is some population control virus released by the government.”

“Well that’s just crazy.” Bellamy replied.

“Yep.” Clarke said with a sigh, “I’m hoping some of what I said, or what Lexa said, got through to my mom though. I understand them not trusting the military, but…”

When Clarke’s sentence stopped Bellamy looked at her, to find that the blonde had a small smile on her face. He followed her line of sight and saw Lexa playing airplane with some of the younger kids, holding them up and spinning them around, causing their laughter to ring out around them.

“Badass Commander turns to complete mush around kids.” Bellamy said with a small laugh, “I’ve seen her take down 20 hostiles on her own, and then go back downstairs and completely melt when she sees those kids.”

“Did you know Costia?” Clarke asked, looking back at Bellamy.

“Yeah,” he said with a nod, “me, O and Raven had only been here for like a month when all that kicked off. She was a good person.”

“How did you all end up here?” Clarke asked.

“Pretty much the same way you did,” Bellamy said, “when all this happened we kinda bunkered down. Then one day when we were out hunting for supplies we crossed paths with one of the patrols, they brought us here.”

A guy that Clarke hadn’t met yet walked out of the door of the building, and over to Lexa.

“Commander,” he said, “there’s a guy called Monty on the radio, wants to talk to Clarke.”

Lexa looked up to the roof where Clarke was sitting.

“Guy called Monty wants to talk to you.” Lexa said.

“Be right down.” Clarke said with a nod.

As Clarke was climbing down from the roof she lost her footing, before she could hit the ground she felt strong arms around her waist, stopping her from falling.

“Careful…” Lexa said quietly in her ear.

“Thanks.” Clarke replied with a small smile.

The guy with the radio walked over to Clarke and held it out to her.

“Thank you,” she said, taking the radio, “I don’t think we’ve met…”

“Clarke this is Ryder,” Lexa said, stepping away from the blonde a little, “he’s one of my unit. Ryder this is Clarke.”

“The runner.” Ryder said with a small smile.

“That would be me.” Clarke replied with a nod and a small laugh.

Ryder nodded a little before walking a short way away, obviously wanting to give Clarke some privacy, Lexa didn’t have the same worries.

“Monty?” Clarke said into the radio.

“Clarke,” Monty said, the relief coming through in his voice, “we were worried about you.”

“That pharmacy run was a total bust,” Clarke said, noticing the slight arch in Lexa’s eyebrow as she spoke, “well, not a _total_ bust… but supplies wise, it was trashed.”

“Your dad gave me this radio,” Monty replied, “your mom and the others were talking about you being somewhere safe?”

“Yeah,” Clarke said, “I’m safe.”

“We overheard them talking about whether or not we should all come there,” Monty said, “they don’t seem to think it’s a good idea, but… some of us think it would be. Is there any way you could come and get us?”

Clarke looked at Lexa, the final choice was hers after all.

“How many?” Lexa asked.

“How many want to come here, Monty?” Clarke asked.

“So far there’s like 15 of us,” Monty replied, “but we’re having a meeting later about it, so that number may go up.”

“We might be able to work something out.” Lexa replied with a nod.

“Keep hold of the radio, Monty,” Clarke said, “when you’ve got a final number let me know, okay?”

“Will do.” Monty said, “and Clarke…”

“Yeah?” Clarke replied.

“Stay safe.” He said.

“You too.” Clarke said.

 

x-x-x-x

 

As Lexa was carrying a tired Aden down the hallway to their room to put him to bed, she passed Clarke’s room, the door was open and she noticed how quiet everything was. Glancing inside the room she saw Clarke asleep on the sofa, a small smile tugged at her lips.

“Why you smiling?” Aden asked as he lifted his head and looked at Lexa.

“Am I not allowed to smile?” Lexa asked in reply, looking at the young boy.

“You are,” He said, “but you don’t, not a lot.”

“Well, you make me smile.” She said, kissing him on the head as she continued walking to their room.

“Clarke makes you smile too.” Aden said as they entered the room and Lexa carried him over to the bed.

Lexa didn’t know how to reply to that so she sat Aden down on his bed and walked over to the chest of drawers to get his pajama’s out.

“Is she staying?” Aden asked as Lexa helped him get changed for bed.

“I don’t know, bud.” Lexa replied with a small smile.

“You want her to though.” He said.

“Yeah,” Lexa said with a nod, “I do.”

“You think Momma would’ve liked her?” Aden asked as he lay down in his bed and Lexa pulled the covers up over him.

“I think so.” She replied, “your momma liked everybody.”

“I miss her.” Aden said, yawning a little.

“So do I, Aden,” Lexa said, placing a soft kiss on his forehead, “so do I.”

“I love you.” He said.

“I love you too.” Lexa replied.

“To the moon and back?” he asked, as he did every night.

“Further.” Lexa said.

 

x-x-x-x

 

When Lexa was sure that Aden was asleep she walked the short distance to Clarke’s room, finding the blonde still asleep on the sofa. Instead of waking the blonde she walked over to the bed and took the blanket off, taking it over to the sofa and laying it over the sleeping blonde. She softly brushed Clarke’s hair from her face, smiling softly as Clarke seemed to react to her touch.

“Why couldn’t I find you before the apocalypse…” she said quietly.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raven needs some important equipment, Clarke volunteers to go and get it, Lexa refuses to let her go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this isn't the most popular of the fanfictions that I have written, that has become abundantly clear to me since the last chapter, but I am enjoying writing it, even if I am just writing it for myself. If you do happen to read it, please drop me a comment, let me know whether it's worth continuing to post it or if I should just stop.

 

After getting breakfast, Clarke decided to make her way to the control room, she wanted to see if Monty had been in contact again. She knew that Raven or someone else would let her know, but as it stood she had nothing to do and she needed to take her mind of everything else. She was still running over and over in her head what her mother had said, she knew that they didn’t trust the military, but was that mistrust really worth risking the lives on their people for.

As she made her way into the control room she could hear a few of the others talking.

“Can you not just fix it?” Anya asked, “Is there nothing in the storage rooms that you could use?”

“Not really,” Raven replied with a sigh, “yes, what I need is in the storage room, but it’s a case of prioritizing what we have. There are three circuit breakers left in the storage room. Three. Now all it’s going to take is a problem with the air circulators, or the water filtration system and we’re screwed.”

“And obviously the air circulators and the water filtration system take precedent over the fence.” Lexa said with a sigh of her own.

“Unfortunately, yeah,” Raven said with a nod, “that fence will keep them out, but without the air circulators and water filtration we might as well be above ground because we will die. The team working in the growing rooms need that water, no water, no food, no food we die. The air circulators are needed for pretty obvious reasons; without them this place becomes a fucking tomb.”

“You’re sure there’s nowhere closer that you can get what we need from?” Anya asked.

“We’ve stripped every building in a 10-mile radius.” Raven replied, “the nearest building I can find on the maps that will have anything near what we need is the hospital, here…”

Clarke could see Raven pointing at the map on the table where the three of them were looking.

“Hospitals are the perfect place for an ambush,” Anya said, shaking her head a little, “too many rooms, no way we could sweep the whole place.”

“You wouldn’t need to,” Raven said, grabbing a laptop and bringing up a blueprint of the building, “what you need to get is in the basement.”

“Big creepy abandoned building, more rooms than we can count, and we have to go into the basement,” Lexa said with a sigh, “because absolutely nothing can go wrong with that plan.”

“Your sarcasm is noted, Commander smart-ass.” Raven replied.

“I’ll go.” Clarke said, from where she was now standing not far from the table.

“No you won’t” Lexa replied, not even looking at her.

“Excuse me?” Clarke asked, stepping closer to the table.

“I said, no you won’t.” Lexa said, glancing at the blonde.

“And why not?” Clarke said, “I’ve been here for a few days and I haven’t contributed anything.”

“If you want to contribute something, you can go with Lincoln and Bellamy on a supply run.” Lexa replied, “but you’re not doing this. It’s too dangerous.”

“But it’s not too dangerous for you?” Clarke asked, “Lexa, people need you here.”

“And I need you here.” Lexa said, looking at her.

“Do you two need a minute?” Anya asked, a smirk on her lips.

Lexa let out a sigh, rolling her eyes a little as she saw Raven and Anya exchange a high-five.

“I’ll take a team of four,” Lexa said, looking back at the map, “two cars.”

“Who do you want with you?” Anya asked.

“Ryder, Indra, Octavia and Nyko.” Lexa replied, “never know when we might need a medic.”

“Shouldn’t I be coming with you?” Anya said, “I have more combat experience than Octavia, it might be better to leave the littlest Blake here.”

“No,” Lexa said, shaking her head a little, “I need you to stay here. Going on the distance between here and the hospital, it’s going to take us at least two days to get there, get what we need and get back. I need someone to take care of Aden while I’m not here.”

“Okay.” Anya said with a nod, “I don’t like it, but okay.”

Clarke let out a sigh, shook her head and walked from the room. As the blonde left Lexa closed her eyes and lowered her head a little.

“And make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid.” Lexa said as she looked up at Anya again.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“So we’re going to this area here.” Bellamy said, pointing to the map which he had on the hood of the car, “before the outbreak it was a small shopping area, hopefully there’ll still be something worth getting.”

“Okay.” Clarke said with a nod.

“You sure about this?” Lincoln asked as he looked at Clarke, “you know that you don’t have to prove anything, right.”

“I need to feel useful,” The blonde replied, “like I’m actually contributing something.”

“I still don’t understand why we have to wear this shit,” Octavia said to Lexa as they walked towards the two cars they would be taking, “it would be easier to move without it.”

“It’s harder to bite through.” Lexa replied, putting the light body armor in the back of the vehicle, “staying alive is slightly more important than speed.”

“I thought all this ammo was what was going to keep us alive,” Octavia said, “I mean you’re bringing enough to take down a small army, what are you expecting when we get there?”

“I have no idea.” Lexa said with a sigh.

Lexa saw Octavia looking over at where Bellamy was standing with Lincoln and Clarke.

“Go do what you need to do.” She said to the younger girl, who nodded before walking over to where the others were standing.

Clarke couldn’t help but notice how Lexa was avoiding eye contact with her, busying herself instead with checking the solar panels on the truck. The blonde saw Anya walk out of the building carrying Aden.

“Someone wanted to talk to you before you left.” Anya said.

“Hey buddy.” Lexa said with a soft smile as she took Aden from Anya.

“Do you have to go?” Aden asked, a small pout on his lips.

“Yeah,” Lexa replied with a nod, “I do.”

“Why can’t someone else go?” the young boy asked, his brow furrowed as he pulled at the shirt Lexa was wearing open over her t-shirt, avoiding looking at her face.

“Because someone else might get it wrong.” Lexa said, closing her eyes as she softly kissed his head.

“You okay?” Octavia asked Clarke as she saw the blonde watching Lexa and Aden.

“Yeah.” Clarke said with a nod.

“That’s always the hardest part,” Octavia said with a sigh, “we all know what we’re getting into, what the risks are, all he knows is that one day she might not come back. He doesn’t really remember Costia, all he really remembers is Lexa taking care of him.”

“She should’ve let me go instead.” Clarke replied, “he needs her here.”

“From what Raven said, Lexa needs you here.” Octavia said with a small smile, “what’s going on with you two?”

“Nothing.” Clarke said with a shrug, shaking her head a little.

“You want there to be something though.” Octavia said.

“I don’t know.” Clarke replied, “she’s… it’s complicated, and what kind of idiot wants to start something like that during the apocalypse, it’s not going to end well.”

“You got to take every moment you can get, Clarke,” Octavia said, a small smile passing her lips as she glanced at Lincoln, “tomorrow isn’t something that is guaranteed for any of us, you don’t want to be living with the regrets of ‘what if’.”

“When did you get so smart?” Clarke asked, her eyebrow arched a little as she looked at Octavia.

“Right around the time I decided to be an idiot and take that risk.” Octavia replied with a laugh, “see you in a few days, Clarke.”

Clarke watched as Octavia walked back over to where Lexa was standing with Aden and Anya. The blonde’s heart started to hurt as she watched Aden wave at Lexa as Anya took him back inside, the brunette not taking her eyes off the small boy until the door was closed, at which time she let out a deep breath, looking up at the sky as she blinked her eyes rapidly.

“Ready to go?” Bellamy asked.

“Give me a minute.” Clarke replied, as she watched Octavia get in the truck and saw Lexa glance over at her.

“Sure.” Bellamy said with a nod, squeezing Clarke’s shoulder slightly before getting in the car they were taking.

“Lexa…” Clarke said, stopping the brunette from getting in the truck before she walked closer to her.

“Do you have everything you need?” Lexa asked, motioning to the car where Lincoln and Bellamy were waiting for the blonde.

“Yeah, I think so.” Clarke said with a nod, noticing how Lexa was still avoiding making eye contact.

“Good.” Lexa said with a nod, “that trip shouldn’t take you more than a few hours, Raven has said she’ll let you know over the radio if Monty gets in contact while you’re out.”

“Okay.” Clarke said.

“If you need anything, talk to Anya,” Lexa said, “she’s a pain in the ass but…”

“Lexa…” Clarke said, with a soft smile, stepping closer to the brunette, before reaching out and taking hold of her hand, “try to get back safe, okay?”

“I always try…” Lexa replied, letting out a breath she didn’t realise she was holding.

“Make sure you try _really_ hard.” Clarke said, her voice breaking a little.

“I’ll see you in a few days.” Lexa said with a soft smile as she brought her hand up and gently wiped tears that Clarke didn’t realise had fallen from the blonde’s face.

“I’ll be right here.” Clarke replied with a nod.

Clarke stood and watched as Lexa walked over and got in the truck before she turned and walked back to the vehicle where Bellamy and Lincoln were waiting for her.

“Let’s do this shit.” Clarke said as she got in the passenger seat of the car.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Later that day, after Clarke, Bellamy and Lincoln had got back safely, and dinner had been eaten, Clarke was sitting in the control room with Raven. Lexa’s group still hadn’t checked in yet that night, though they had been checking in at pretty regular intervals, mostly with Octavia complaining about how the air-con in the truck wouldn’t go high enough. Raven and Clarke had laughed when Lexa came over the radio talking about how it was the apocalypse and Octavia was worried about the air-con.

“When were they supposed to check in again?” Clarke asked, looking over at Raven who was leaning back in her chair, trying to catch popcorn in her mouth.

“Twenty minutes ago.” Raven said, spinning round in her chair and typing a few things into the computer.

Clarke stood up from her seat at the table and walked over to her friend to see what she was doing. On the screen she saw four small red lights flashing on the map.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“They’re each wearing a watch,” Raven said, “military issue. In the base of the watch, the part closest to the wrist, there’s a sensor. It measures the heart rate. As long as those lights are flashing, they’re alive.”

“Okay.” Clarke said, with a nod, feeling a sense of relief washing over her, “so why won’t they have checked in yet?”

“No idea.” Raven replied with a small sigh, “maybe they’re trying to find somewhere to hunker down for the night. Sometimes when shit like this means they’re out overnight, they’ll stay in the trucks, but even the biters are curious about trucks out in the middle of nowhere.”

At that moment the radio crackled to life.

“Octavia to the mothership.” Octavia said over the radio, causing Clarke and Raven to laugh a little.

“You’re late, asshole.” Raven said into the radio.

“Blame Lexa,” Octavia said, “our illustrious Commander thought it would be an awesome idea to drive the truck straight through a plane glass window.”

“In my defense,” Lexa said over the radio, “I couldn’t see where I was going, and Octavia decided it would be great idea to pull the wheel.”

“You were driving us straight at a horde of hostiles.” Octavia said.

“The hood was already covered with the fuckers,” Lexa said, “a few more really wasn’t going to make much difference.”

“Okay, children,” Raven said, “enough. You’re safe now, right?”

“For now,” Lexa replied with a sigh, “yeah. How’s everything going there?”

“Pretty good.” Raven said, “though Clarke mentioned something about Anya complaining about how she didn’t want to build a fucking snowman.”

“Well she’s just going to have to deal with it.” Lexa said with a laugh, “we’ll check in again in a few hours.”

“Sure thing, boss lady.” Raven said.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Raven was asleep in her chair, her head resting on the table, as Clarke sat and watched the four red dots flashing on the screen. The blonde jumped as the door to the control room opened. She turned around to see Aden standing in the doorway.

“Hey…” she said with a small smile, “you okay?”

The young boy shook his head, his brow furrowed.

“Come here.” Clarke said softly, the young boy walked over to her, the blonde picking him up and sitting him on her knee, “you have a bad dream?”

“Where’s Lexa?” he asked.

“You see these dots right here,” Clarke said, pointing at the screen, Aden nodded a little, “that’s where Lexa is.”

“I miss her.” Aden said, resting his head on Clarke’s shoulder as they both sat there watching the dots.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Aden and Clarke had both fallen asleep that night in the control room, Anya had found them there when she had woken up and seen that Aden was missing from his bed.

The following day seemed to pass pretty quickly, Clarke spending the day with the younger kids when Ontari had invited her to stay after she dropped off some toys and paints they had found the previous day.

That evening Clarke had gone outside, knowing that Lexa and the others were due back. Her heart dropped when she saw only one truck drive up to the gates.

“Need some help here!” Octavia yelled as she jumped out of the driver’s seat of the truck and rushed to the door at the back.

Clarke ran over to the truck to see Nyko laying on the backseat, covered in blood.

“What the hell happened?” Clarke asked.

“Turns out biters aren’t the only thing we found in the hospital.” Octavia replied, “there were people there, with guns. Keep pressure on his stomach, I need to radio down for medical help.”

Clarke nodded a little, taking over from Octavia as the younger girl grabbed the radio from the front of the truck.

“Raven,” she said into the radio, “send a medical team up top.”

“Everything okay?” Raven asked.

“Not really.” Octavia replied, “Nyko needs help, now.”

“It’s on its way, O.” Raven said a few seconds later, “is everyone else okay?”

“Indra took a knock to the head, but other than that she’s okay.” Octavia said, looking at the woman who was sitting in the passenger seat, “we lost Ryder…”

“And Lexa?” Raven asked.

Clarke heard Raven asking about Lexa, she looked at Octavia.

“She told me to get Nyko and Indra out of there.” Octavia replied, her brow furrowed as she looked down at the floor, “I had to leave, I had no choice. She was alive when we left.”

There was a sudden flurry of activity as the door flew open and people rushed out to help Nyko and Indra.

“I’m sorry, Clarke…” Octavia said quietly as they watched Nyko and Indra get taken back inside.

“You said she was alive when you left?” Clarke said, looking at her friend, who nodded, “so she could… she could still be alive, right?”

“She could.” Octavia said with a nod.

“Then we need to go and find her.” Clarke said.

“I can’t let you do that.” Anya said, from where she was now standing.

“We can’t just leave her out there, Anya.” Clarke replied.

“Before she left, she told me not to let you do anything stupid,” Anya said with a sigh, “which is what I’m doing.”

“Anya, come on…” Clarke said.

“I’m sorry, Clarke.” Anya replied, before bringing the radio she was holding up to her lips, “lock the gates, Raven.”

“You got it.” Raven replied with a sigh.

“She could still be alive out there, and you’re just going to leave her?” Clarke asked, her anger starting to show as she stepped closer to Anya.

“If she’s still alive, she’ll find her way home.” Anya said.

“She’s your friend, Anya,” Clarke said, as she stopped in front of the older girl, “your Commander. You can’t do this.”

“I’m doing what Lexa would want, Clarke.” Anya said, “she wouldn’t want us risking more lives to find her. Trust me on that.”

“I will find a way out of here.” Clarke said, pushing past Anya and walking back into the building.

“Keep an eye on her.” Anya said to Octavia, who nodded a little.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“Raven,” Clarke said as she walked into the control room, “bring up that map you showed me last night.”

Raven didn’t say anything, she just wheeled her chair over to the computer and brought up the map.

“There,” Clarke said, pointing to the screen and the single red dot that was still flashing, “that means she’s still alive, right?”

“Yes.” Raven replied with a nod, “that means that she’s still alive, and she’s still at the hospital.”

“Raven, you have got to get me out of here.” Clarke said, looking at her friend, “we can’t just leave her out there.”

“I’m sorry, Clarke.” Raven said, “I wish I could.”

“This is bullshit.” Clarke said.

“It is what it is,” Raven replied with a sigh, “we’ve been through this kind of thing before, and we lost 6 more people sending them out after one.”

“Lexa’s the one that said that wasn’t going to happen again,” Bellamy said, as he, Lincoln and Octavia walked into the control room, “it isn’t what she’d want, Clarke.”

“You know if it was one of you out there, she’d do everything that she could to get you back here,” Clarke said, looking around the group, “she wouldn’t leave you out there to die, alone.”

Nobody said anything.

“Give me the damn radio.” Clarke said, snatching the radio from Raven’s hands before storming from the room.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Clarke was sitting in her room, the door closed. Anya wouldn’t let her back above ground, knowing that the blonde would do pretty much everything she could to get out of the compound. Clarke had spent the first few hours in her room trying to get hold of Lexa over the radio, but she had got nothing but static in return.

She once again picked up the radio from where it was sitting on the sofa.

“Lexa…” she said, “I don’t know if you still have your radio, but you need to come home Lexa, Aden needs you…”

Clarke wiped the tears that were falling from her eyes.

“I need you…” she said into the radio.

“Does someone want to open the damn gate…” a quiet voice said over the radio.

“Lexa?” Clarke asked.

“I’m here, Clarke,” Lexa replied, “I’m here…”

 Clarke ran from her room to the control room, where Raven, Anya, Octavia and Lincoln were.

“You need to open the gate.” She said.

“We’ve been through this…” Anya started to say.

“You need to open the gate so Lexa can get in.” Clarke said, “she’s outside.”

Raven looked at the screen, the small red flashing dot was in fact right at the compound.

“Well, I’ll be damned.” Raven said.

 

x-x-x-x

 

As the group made it upstairs, Lexa was sitting in the truck, the driver’s side door open. Clarke couldn’t seem to stop her feet from carrying her to the brunette.

“Shit…” she said when she saw Lexa.

The brunette had a split lip, her arm was tied up in a makeshift splint, the was a bandage over the thigh of her left leg which was red due to blood loss.

“It’s good to see you too, Clarke.” Lexa said with a small laugh, making herself cough.

“We need to get you inside.” The blonde said, helping Lexa from the car, she grimaced as the brunette groaned in pain.

“The bag…” Lexa said, motioning to the passenger seat.

“The bag can wait.” Clarke said.

“Get the damned bag.” Lexa said, looking at her.

Clarke sighed, shaking her head a little, before she reached into the car and got the bag from the seat. After she handed Lexa the bag, the brunette threw it over to Raven.

“Hopefully that should last us a while.” Lexa said.

“Did you strip the entire hospital?” Raven asked, looking from the contents of the bag to the brunette who was trying her best not to show how much pain she was in.

“Three floors.” Lexa said with a shrug.

“You’re fucking crazy.” Octavia said, shaking her head as she laughed.

Clarke and Anya helped Lexa back into the building.

“Have you been bitten?” Anya asked, looking at Lexa as they stopped before the decontamination area.

“I don’t know.” Lexa replied honestly.

“You all go first,” Anya said, looking at the group, “Lexa and I will go last.”

“See you on the other side.” Raven said with a smile and a nod as she looked at Lexa, who nodded in return.

After Raven, Octavia, Bellamy and Lincoln had all been through the decontamination area, Anya looked at Clarke.

“You’re up.” She said, motioning to the door.

“You go.” Clarke replied.

Anya looked at Lexa.

“Clarke…” Lexa said, looking at the blonde, “go.”

“No.” Clarke replied, shaking her head, “I’m not leaving you.”

“If I’ve been bitten…” Lexa said.

“I’m not leaving you.” Clarke said again, determined blue eyes meeting green.

“Okay.” Lexa replied with a nod, “okay…”

“Good luck.” Anya said, quickly pulling Lexa into a hug before she stepped through the door.

“You should’ve gone.” Lexa said to Clarke as the door closed behind Anya.

“Yeah, well, I never was any good at doing what I was told.” Clarke said with a small smile.

“Can you do something for me?” Lexa asked, her mind taking her back to when she had been in this very position with Costia.

“Anything.” Clarke replied.

“Take care of Aden.” Lexa said, “he likes you, and something tells me that you’ll deal better with the Disney songs than Anya, she’ll last a week before she tries getting him to listen to heavy metal music to sleep. It’ll be a real mess.”

“You’re going to be fine, Lexa,” Clarke said, stepping closer to the brunette who was leaning against the wall near the door, bringing her hand up she softly traced the line of Lexa’s jaw, “you’re going to get through this.”

“You really should’ve gone first.” Lexa replied, as she rested her forehead against Clarke’s.

The light above the door changed colour, letting them know that they could go through.

“Do you know one thing I would regret…” Lexa said, as the two of them walked into the decontamination area.

“Not meeting my mother?” Clarke asked, as she turned to face Lexa, causing the brunette to laugh a little.

“No.” Lexa replied, pushing down the nervous doubts she had, as her hands moved to Clarke’s hips and she pulled the blonde closer to her, “not meeting you sooner.”

“Well I’m here now.” Clarke said, her hands trailing up Lexa’s arms, before resting over the brunette’s shoulders, “I’m right here.”

Lexa slowly closed the distance between their lips, feeling as though everything in her life finally fell into place as she kissed Clarke. It wasn’t like some earth shattering kiss, with fireworks and explosions, it was a feeling of safety, of home.

They broke apart as they heard the tell-tale hiss of the decontamination.

“Look at me.” Clarke said as Lexa started to look around the room, “just keep looking at me.”

“I’m scared, Clarke.” Lexa said quietly.

“You’re okay,” Clarke said, resting her head against Lexa’s, “you’re okay.”

After a few moments Anya’s relieved voice came through the intercom.

“You’re all done.” She said.

Lexa let out a relieved sigh. She put her arms around Clarke’s waist, pulling her closer to her, the blonde felt as though she melted into the embrace.

“I think there’s someone who is going to be very happy to see you.” Clarke said quietly she softly kissed Lexa’s neck.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“Why she here if she’s not sick?” Aden asked as Clarke carried him to the medical area.

“She’s not sick,” Clarke said to the young boy, “but she did get hurt.”

“She gonna be okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, bud,” Clarke replied with a smile, “she’s going to be just fine.”

“Hey…” Lexa said a smile tugging at her lips as Clarke brought Aden into the room.

The blonde put the young boy down and he nearly tripped over his own feet as he ran to the bed where Lexa was.

“Careful.” Lexa said as she picked him up and held him close.

“I missed you.” Aden said, burying his face in the crook of Lexa’s neck.

Clarke couldn’t stop the smile coming to her lips as she took in the sight before her.

“I missed you too.” Lexa said, “so much.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things start to pick up pace as the group go to the compound where Clarke's people live to collect the group who want to leave. We find out a little more about the zombies and where they may have come from, and Abby can't get over her distrust for the military.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the comments on the last chapter, it really helped me to know that so many people were actually reading this and I wasn't just writing it for myself. I'm really sorry for the delay with this new chapter, I've had a lot of personal crap going on for the last few weeks which has made it really difficult for me to get in the mood to write. Hopefully you all like this part. Please drop me a comment and let me know. Happy reading.

 

A few days passed since the trip out to the hospital, Monty had been back in touch, telling Clarke that 8 people wanted to leave the compound where their people were living. A plan was put in place, they would take 3 cars, two people in each car, leaving space for 3 people in the back of each car.

Clarke had been pretty surprised by the fact that only 8 people were wanting to leave, Lexa had pointed out that it was actually easier for them to pick up 8 people, carrying more people back in one go would take more planning, and if anyone else decided they wanted to leave at a later date they could always go back again and get them. Other than the cars, they also had use of a minibus, which would carry up to 21 people, but Raven had yet to hook it up with solar panels so it was still running on gas.

They would be leaving at first light, driving through the day, before stopping overnight. Anya and Lexa had planned out their route on the map, finding a small farm building where they would be able to spend the night, before continuing on to the compound. They knew they would need to either pick up the people who wanted to leave and start to travel back as soon as possible, or stay overnight in the compound before leaving the following morning. Lexa favoured the idea of leaving as soon as possible, as she had no idea how safe the compound where Clarke’s people lived was, or how trustworthy the people were who lived there, but she also knew there was a chance they would have to stay overnight, especially if Clarke’s parents had any say in it.

As far as Clarke knew, Lexa would be staying behind, she was still recovering from the attack at the hospital, but Lexa had other ideas. The evening before the team would be leaving, Clarke found Lexa in the gym, lifting weights with Aden sitting on her stomach and Anya standing behind her in case she needed the bar lifting from her.

“You know when a doctor tells you to take it easy they don’t mean work out in the gym, right.” Clarke said, leaning against the wall near where Lexa was lifting weights.

“You’re in trouble.” Aden said with a small giggle.

“I’m fine, Clarke.” Lexa said, as she continued to lift the weights.

“A few days ago you sprained your wrist and almost dislocated your shoulder,” the blonde replied, “you shouldn’t be straining your arm in any way, pretty sure lifting weights is against everything the doctor told you.”

“It was a slight sprain to my wrist, and a knock to the shoulder,” Lexa said, “nothing was broken, I’m fine.”

Anya lifted the weight up and put it on the bar before Aden moved from Lexa’s stomach to her legs and the brunette sat up, Aden wiped the towel he had in his hands over Lexa’s face.

“Sweaty.” He said, scrunching his nose up a little.

“Thanks bud.” Lexa said, “do you want to jump down?”

Aden climbed down off Lexa’s lap before the brunette reached down beside her and grabbed the bottle of water that sat there.

“So, how is tomorrow going to work?” Clarke asked as Lexa took a mouthful of water before rolling her neck.

“3 cars, 6 people,” Lexa said, resting her arms on her knees as she looked at Clarke, “we’ll drive through the day, stop off overnight, and we should make it to the compound where your people are at around midday the following day.”

“We?” Clarke asked, “I thought you were staying here.”

“Your mother has issues with me already because I’m military, she knows that I’m in command here, how is it going to look if I’m not there.” Lexa said.

“She’s a doctor, she’s going to understand why you couldn’t be there.” Clarke replied, “you should stay here.”

“It’s either me, or Anya,” Lexa said, “and I don’t think any of your people would approve of anyone leaving with Anya.”

“I’m not exactly a people person.” Anya said with a shrug.

“Understatement.” Lexa said with a small laugh, “I’m more than capable of driving a car and firing a gun if necessary, there’s really nothing to worry about.”

“Can I come?” Aden said, looking between Clarke and Lexa.

“I don’t think so bud,” Lexa said, shaking her head a little, “sorry.”

“So who’s gonna take care of me?” Aden asked, “if you and Clarke are both leaving?”

“Anya.” Lexa replied, causing the young boy to pout a little, “don’t look at me like that, you’ve never had a problem with Anya looking after you before.”

“She doesn’t like my music.” He said.

“I’m sure she can deal with it for a few days,” Lexa said, arching her eyebrow a little.

“Fine.” Aden said with a dramatic sigh, which caused Clarke to laugh slightly.

“So dramatic.” Clarke said, ruffling his hair a little.

The radio that Clarke had buzzed to life.

“Griffin,” Raven said, “gonna need you to come to the command center, we’re trying to figure out what jobs people can do when they get here.”

“On my way, Raven.” Clarke said with a sigh.

“Have fun.” Lexa said with a smirk, causing Clarke to roll her eyes a little before she turned and walked to the door of the gym.

“Can I come?” Aden asked, stopping the blonde in her tracks.

Clarke looked at Lexa, obviously she didn’t want to tell Aden he could go with her if Lexa had something else for the young boy to do.

“You promise to behave?” Lexa said as she looked at Aden, the young boy nodded quickly in reply, “okay.”

“Yes.” Aden said, pumping his fist a little, a triumphant grin on his face, before he walked over to where Clarke was standing and reached up to take hold of her hand.

“You going to help me figure out what people can do?” Clarke asked, looking down at the young boy as they walked from the room.

“He likes her.” Anya said, as Lexa stood up from the weight bench.

“You don’t approve.” Lexa replied, glancing at her friend.

“It’s not that I don’t approve,” Anya said with a sigh, “I just… don’t you think you’re risking having an upset child if she decides not to stay? I mean, say things don’t go well tomorrow and Clarke’s parents talk her into staying there, you’ll be coming back here without her, and Aden isn’t going to like that.”

“Clarke has given me absolutely no indication that she’s even considering staying with her people.” Lexa said, “she has her own mind, Anya, you’d know that if you spent more than 5 minutes talking to her.”

“I talk to her.” Anya said, furrowing her brow as she looked at Lexa.

“By choice?” Lexa asked, a small smirk pulling at her lips.

“Look,” Anya said with another sigh, “I just think getting attached to someone at the moment isn’t a good idea.”

“Are you still talking about Aden?” Lexa said, knowing what Anya was getting at.

“You and Clarke have been spending a lot of time together since the hospital incident,” Anya said, “and the whole kissing in the decon area thing. Just… be careful, okay.”

“Anya,” Lexa said with a small smile, “do you know something that whole hospital thing taught me, this time tomorrow we could all be dead. In this last year we’ve lost a lot of people, a lot of friends… The morning before we left for the hospital Ryder told me something that has been stuck in my head, we were talking about the risks, about the chances of coming back. He said that one thing he had learned was that he didn’t want to die having regrets. We all know the risks; we all know that one wrong move up there could mean we don’t come back. Life was short before this shit, Anya, it’s even shorter now. Will I end up regretting seeing what this thing might be with Clarke? No, I don’t think I will, but I do know that if I’m laying up there dying, I’ll regret not taking that risk.”

Anya just nodded a little as Lexa turned and walked from the room, knowing that nothing she could say would change the brunette’s mind. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to change her mind, but she had already seen Lexa go through the loss of losing someone she cared about when Costia died, she didn’t want to have to see her go through that again.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Lexa was taking a couple of pain killers when a knock from the door grabbed her attention.

“Hate to say I told you so.” Clarke said with a smirk as she watched Lexa put the remaining pills on the small table.

“I have a headache.” Lexa replied as she stood up.

“Right.” Clarke said with a nod, walking into the room, carrying a sleeping Aden with her, “apparently all the excitement of trying to figure out jobs for people was too much for this little guy.”

“It’s about an hour after his usual bedtime,” Lexa said, glancing at the clock on the wall, “I wouldn’t take it personally.”

Lexa walked over to the blonde to take the sleeping boy from her.

“I’ve got him.” Clarke said with a small smile, carrying Aden towards his room, “wouldn’t want you hurting your arm anymore now would we.”

“I told you…” Lexa said as she followed Clarke.

“Headache,” Clarke said, shooting Lexa a small smirk, “right.”

Lexa stood by the bedroom door and watched as Clarke put Aden to bed, softly kissing his head before turning the small light on which sat on the young boys bedside table, pulling the blanket up over his sleeping form as the stars from the light filled the room.

“This light is awesome.” Clarke said, looking around the room.

“Costia got it for him when he was a baby,” Lexa said with a small smile, “she told me once that it’s pretty accurate.”

“My dad used to take me stargazing as a kid,” Clarke said as the two of them walked back into the small living room area, “we’d spend hours on the outskirts of the city sitting on the hood of his truck, my mom used to hate it.”

“Not a fan of stargazing?” Lexa asked as she sat on the sofa and motioned for Clarke to join her.

“She didn’t want me catching a cold.” Clarke said with a shrug, causing Lexa to laugh a little as she sat down next to her, “it’s actually one of the very few plus points of this whole end of the world thing…”

“I’m pretty sure you’d still get a cold, Clarke.” Lexa said, arching her eyebrow and smirking a little.

“Not that,” Clarke said, shaking her head a little, “there’s not that many people around anymore, and those that are still alive don’t like to advertise the fact that a house is occupied by having their lights on, either that or they don’t have any generators, anyway, less light pollution.”

“Makes sense I guess,” Lexa said with a small nod, “I’ve never really spent too much time looking up at the stars.”

“You’re missing out.” Clarke said, “I used to sit and wonder if there was anyone else up there, you know, any other life in the universe.”

“I always figured if there was other life up there they wouldn’t look like us,” Lexa said, “I don’t mean little green men, but it’d be really boring if the rest of the universe was like us, wouldn’t it.”

“I guess it would.” Clarke said with a nod.

“So,” Lexa said, turning slightly on the sofa so she could look at Clarke, “looking forward to seeing your parents?”

“Yes and no,” Clarke said with a shrug, “they’re my parents, so yes, I’m looking forward to seeing them, but I’m pretty sure I know what my mom is going to say, so no, I’m not.”

“She’ll want you to stay.” Lexa said with a small sigh.

“Yeah,” the blonde replied, “she will.”

“Do you want to?” Lexa asked.

“No,” Clarke said, shaking her head, “I mean, they’re my parents and I love them, but… it’s not safe out there, you know.”

“Right.” Lexa said, nodding a little, trying to keep the disappointment from her voice as she thought the only reason Clarke was staying at the facility was because it was safer.

“Plus Raven’s here, and Octavia and Bellamy,” Clarke said, a small smirk tugging at her lips, “and Aden’s here, I’m getting a bit attached to him.”

Lexa couldn’t stop the small smile on her lips.

“And,” Clarke said, shuffling over on the sofa a little so she was closer to Lexa, “you’re here, I’m right where I want to be.”

“If you want to go home, Clarke…” Lexa said, bringing her hand up and trailing her fingers softly down the blonde’s jaw.

“If I wanted to go home, I would go home,” Clarke replied, “you already told me I can leave anytime I want to, you’re not forcing me to stay here, Lexa.”

“I know, I just…” Lexa started to say.

“You really weren’t listening when I said I’m right where I want to be, were you.” Clarke said, closing the distance between her lips and Lexa’s.

“I was just double checking.” Lexa mumbled against Clarke’s lips, before she deepened the kiss.

The kiss continued for a few moments before Lexa backed away little.

“I actually have a question.” She said, resting her forehead against the blonde’s.

“Is it an important question?” Clarke asked with a slight groan, “cause I was really liking where that kiss was going.”

“Do you have any evangelical neighbors where your people are?” Lexa asked, causing Clarke to laugh.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“We should be back in a few days.” Lexa said to Anya as she loaded the last of the backpacks into the back of the car.

“You said that three times already.” Anya said with a small smile, “we’re going to be fine, you’re going to be fine.”

“If anything happens…” Lexa started to say.

“I’ll have Raven radio you, then shoot the fuck out whatever it is because there’s no way you’ll get back in time.” Anya said, “Lexa, everything is going to be fine, go.”

“Right.” Lexa said with a nod, turning to get in the car, “If Aden can’t sleep…”

“Let him sleep in your bed,” Anya said, “I know the drill.”

Lexa nodded her head again before she got in the drivers seat of the car, Clarke was already in the passenger seat.

“You sure you don’t want me to drive?” Clarke asked, glancing over at Lexa as the brunette started the car.

“If my arm starts hurting, I’ll let you know,” Lexa said with a soft smile, “until then we’re good.”

“Okay, fine,” Clarke said with a huff, “it was just an offer.”

“You know sulking isn’t supposed to be cute, right.” Lexa said, driving the car from the compound, Bellamy following her and Octavia following him.

Clarke looked over at Lexa and poked her tongue out slightly before folding her arms across her chest.

“Very mature, Clarke,” Lexa said with a laugh, “okay, tell me about these people we’re picking up. There’s Monty, another genius, who else?”

“Jasper,” Clarke replied, “he and Monty do everything together, where you see one you will see the other not far behind. They’re both my age, though at times Aden will seem more mature.”

“Great, more kids.” Lexa said with a small laugh, shaking her head a little, “who else?”

“Harper and Monroe,” Clarke said, “stick guns in their hands and point them in the right direction and they’ll shoot anything you tell them too. Miller and his boyfriend Bryan, both pretty quiet guys, you’ll get no trouble from them. Then there’s Murphy, I’m pretty sure he’s just coming to get away from everyone else, he has a bit of an attitude, but he’s cool. Then there’s Finn.”

“Anything I need to know about Finn?” Lexa asked, glancing over at the blonde.

“He’s Raven’s ex,” Clarke replied, “they were together all through high school, friends since they were kids.”

“And how did their relationship end?” the brunette asked, “is it likely to be a problem?”

“He… he started hitting on me.” Clarke said, her brow furrowed as she ignored Lexa looking at her, “so it didn’t end well, but I’m pretty sure they’re both mature enough to deal with it now.”

“So he’s your ex as well?” Lexa said.

“No,” Clarke replied, shaking her head, “nothing happened between us, no matter how much he wanted it to. He got drunk at a party in our senior year in high school, tried to kiss me, Raven saw and slapped him, dumped him the next day when he would be sober enough to remember it.”

“Is he still interested in you?” Lexa said, glancing over at Clarke again before looking back ahead of her.

“I don’t know,” Clarke said with a sigh, “he knows nothing is going to happen and has said he’s fine with us just being friends.”

“Okay,” Lexa said with a small nod, “just checking because I wouldn’t want to be stepping on anyone’s toes.”

“You’re not stepping on anyone’s toes, Lexa.” Clarke said with a small smile as she looked over at the brunette, “there are no toes to step on.”

“Good to know.” Lexa said.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Bellamy turned his attention from where he was watching out of the open barn doors, to Lexa who was sitting up on first watch with him, he smiled a little as he watched the brunette pull the blanket up around Clarke’s shoulders as the blonde slept with her head in the brunette’s lap.

“Something you want to say?” Lexa said, her gaze shifting from the sleeping Clarke to Bellamy.

“Nope,” Bellamy said, a small smile tugging at his lips as he shook his head a little, “did she tell you who we’re picking up?”

“She ran through the names, listing a few pro’s and con’s.” Lexa said with a small nod, resting her head back against the wooden support post behind her as she looked back out into the night.

“She mentioned that Finn is coming right?” Bellamy asked.

“Yep.” Lexa said.

“They were all friends in high school, then Finn got drunk at a party, tried it on with Clarke…” Bellamy said.

“And Raven dumped his ass,” Lexa said, her eyes flicking back to Bellamy, “Clarke told me, what’s your point?”

“He might be a little… weird with you,” Bellamy replied, “he always second guesses anyone who is interested in Clarke.”

“Well his opinion isn’t important to me,” Lexa said with a sigh, “if he has an issue, that’s his problem, not mine.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

The night had been quiet, no signs of any trouble, Clarke only knew that because she slept through the night, as did Octavia, nobody woke them to take a watch.

“How much further?” Clarke asked, glancing at Lexa.

The brunette looked at the small palm held map that sat attached to the dashboard of the car.

“About 10 minutes.” Lexa said, “According to this. Saying that though, the last time Anya used one of these her final destination was marked as the middle of a lake, she didn’t realise that until she almost drove into the water.”

“Then it’s a good thing you came along and not Anya,” Clarke said with a laugh, picking up the radio, “Monty, are you there?”

“I’m here, Clarke.” Monty replied.

“We’re about 10 minutes out,” the blonde said, “can you make sure someone is there to open the gates please.”

“Sure thing.” Monty said, “your mom was talking about you guys staying the night, something about wanting to get to know the people you’re with.”

“Of course she did,” Clarke said, rolling her eyes and letting out a small sigh, “we’ll have to see what happens when we get there.”

“Okay,” Monty replied, “guess we’ll see you soon then.”

“See you soon.” Clarke said, before putting the radio back down on her lap.

“We can stay the night if you want to.” Lexa said.

“We need to get back, you told Anya that we’d only be gone a few days.” Clarke replied.

“Anya and I also assumed that your parents would want to spend some time with you,” Lexa said, a small smile playing on her lips, “and Raven said your mother would certainly want to spend some time trying to figure me out, so we factored in an overnight stay. It’s fine, really.”

“I’ll try not to leave you alone with my mother for any prolonged period of time.” Clarke said, shooting Lexa a grin.

“I survived a hospital full of hostiles and assholes with weapons,” Lexa said, flashing Clarke a smirk, “I’m sure I can deal with your mother.”

Clarke laughed a little, stopping as she saw a group of biters ahead of them.

“Lexa…” she said.

“I see them,” Lexa replied, “I knew this quiet was too good to be true.”

Lexa pulled the car to a stop, Bellamy and Octavia following suit with the cars they were driving.

“We have a small group of hostiles up ahead,” Lexa said over the radio, “we can go around them, go through them or just shoot them.”

“Well my trigger finger was getting a little bored.” Octavia replied over the radio.

“Guess that answers that question then.” Lexa said with a laugh, handing Clarke the radio before reaching into the back seat and grabbing her sniper rifle.

Lexa pulled herself up out of the window of the car rather than opening the door, she positioned herself on the roof of the car and took aim.

“You could at least try and save some for the rest of us.” Octavia called over as she climbed up onto the roof of her car a little way from where Lexa’s car was stopped.

“Not my fault you’re slow.” Lexa said, turning her attention back to the hostiles.

She took aim again, furrowing her brow a little as she looked down the scope, behind what was left of the small group of hostiles she saw three people who definitely still had all their cognitive functions still intact.

“Wait.” She said, holding her hand up a little, stopping the others from firing their weapons.

“What is it?” Octavia asked.

“People.” Lexa replied, looking back down the scope of her weapon, picking off what was left of the group of hostiles, before aiming her weapon at the leg of one of the men she could see.

As soon as the man dropped to the floor the other people that were with him ran off, leaving him, as Lexa assumed they would. She climbed back in the window of her car and picked up the radio.

“Bellamy, Tristan, I want you to pick that guy up.” Lexa said over the radio as she started the car again, “bring him with us, he’s going to answer a few questions.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

“Open the gates.” Clarke yelled, with her head out of the car window as Lexa slowed the car in front of the huge gates which were connected to a steel fence.

“That’s a security risk right there.” Lexa said as they waited for someone to open the gates, out of the corner of her eye she saw Clarke look at her, “the gates, the rest of the fence is built in a way that can’t be easily climbed, but the way the steel is set up on those gates makes it too easy.”

“I’ll mention it to my mother.” Clarke said, as she saw Monty wave from the gate house on top of the fence, “you ready for this?”

“I was born ready.” Lexa replied with a smirk as she drove the car through the now opening gates.

As the three cars pulled up inside the compound, Lexa took note of the group of people who were waiting for them, before she got out of the car.

“Mom.” Clarke said, walking over to her mother, finding herself instantly pulled into a hug, “where’s dad?”

“He’s working on an engineering project with Sinclair.” Abby said as Clarke stepped back.

“This is Lexa, Commander Lexa Woods…” Clarke said, motioning to Lexa, “Lexa, this is my mom.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Doctor Griffin.” Lexa said, holding her hand out, dropping it a few moments later when it became clear that Abby wasn’t going to shake it, a small smirk tugged at Lexa’s lips, “right…”

“Weapons,” An armed man who was standing next to Abby said, “and keys.”

“Not happening.” Lexa replied, shaking head.

“Weapons and keys, now.” The man repeated, taking a step closer to Lexa.

“Are you hard of hearing or something?” Lexa asked, “it’s not going to happen.”

“Mom,” Clarke said, looking at her mother, “what’s going on?”

“There’s a man bleeding in the back of the car, Chancellor Griffin.” A man said as he looked into the back seat of the car Bellamy had been driving.

“Oh, him,” Lexa said, folding her arms across her chest, “we ran across him earlier with a group of hostiles, not far from here.”

“You randomly go around shooting people?” Abby asked.

“Did you miss the part where I said he was with a group of hostiles?” Lexa asked in reply, “there’s something going on around here, Doctor Griffin, he’s going to tell me what. I assume you have somewhere I can question him.”

“You’re not asking him any questions until I give him medical attention,” Abby said, moving towards the car, “and its _Chancellor_ Griffin, Miss Woods.”

“It’s _Commander_ Woods,” Lexa replied, “ma’am.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

“What the hell is going on?” Lexa asked, as she stood looking out of the window in the living room of the house they had been lead to.

“I have no idea,” Clarke replied, from her place on the sofa, “when I left Jaha was technically Chancellor, basically someone who is elected to be in charge of important decisions regarding the day to day running of this place.”

“I’m aware of what a Chancellor is, Clarke.” Lexa said, glancing over her shoulder at the blonde, before looking back out of the window, “I just wasn’t aware your mother was Hitler.”

“Things have changed around here,” Finn said as he walked into the room, “as you can probably tell.”

“Tell us something we don’t know, Finn.” Bellamy said with a sigh.

“More people have gone missing,” Finn replied, obviously taking what Bellamy had said literally, “Jaha wasn’t doing anything about it, so the majority of people called for another election, the choices were Abby or Marcus Kane.”

“And my mother won?” Clarke asked, “wasn’t Kane Jaha’s deputy or something?”

“That’s why he didn’t win,” Finn said with a nod, walking over to the sofa, “that and the fact that he was talking about only arming the guards on the gate. It’s good to see you, Clarke, we were worried about you.”

“My mom knew I was fine.” Clarke said, not missing the way Lexa looked back at them as Finn sat down next to Clarke.

“She told us you were in a military facility,” Finn replied, “Kane agreed with your father when he said it might be safer for us all to go there, your mother and most of the others stuck by the same thing we’ve been hearing for a year, that the military…”

“The military can’t be trusted?” Lexa asked, turning around to face the room, as Finn nodded, “yeah, we got that loud and clear.”

“I’m sorry, Lexa,” Clarke said, “I had no idea it was going to be like this.”

“It’s fine,” Lexa said with a soft smile, “we’ll play your mom’s games for tonight, then in the morning we’ll head back with the people we’re here to pick up, nothing to worry about.”

“You’re still leaving?” Finn asked, looking at Clarke.

“I wouldn’t really say I’m leaving,” Clarke said, “it’s not like I had any intention of staying here, we’re here to take people with us, not stay.”

The front door of the house opened and Abby walked in, with two armed men.

“Are they really necessary?” Lexa asked, motioning to the men.

“As you’re in my home, yes.” Abby replied as one of the men closed the door.

Lexa sighed, shook her head a little and rolled her eyes before turning her attention back to what was happening outside.

“Mom,” Clarke said, standing up, “what the hell is going on? You knew we were coming, you know that we’re here to take Monty, Jasper, and the others with is, you said it was okay.”

“A scouting party went out the day before yesterday,” Abby said, “a team of 8, only one came back. He said that the others were taken by a group of men with guns, men dressed in army fatigues.”

Lexa slowly turned her head and looked at Abby.

“There isn’t another military group stationed out here.” She said as she looked at the older Griffin woman.

“So you say.” Abby said.

“It’s the truth,” Lexa said, fully turning around so she was now facing Abby, “my unit were assigned to the area shortly after the outbreak or whatever it is you want to call it, we are the only military group stationed here. The closest unit to us is over 100 miles away.”

“Again, so you say.” Abby replied.

“This is ridiculous.” Lexa said with a sigh as she looked at Clarke.

“How do you explain the army fatigues, the military issue weapons?” Abby asked, causing Lexa to look at her again.

“Army fatigues are easy to get hold of, Chancellor Griffin,” Lexa replied, taking a step closer to the woman, “you could buy fatigues at any outdoors camping store before this happened. As for the weapons, how do you know they’re military issue? In case it escaped your attention, guns were very much legal in this country, anyone could purchase one.”

“The man you shot claims that he is part of the Mount Weather security detail.” Abby said.

Abby’s words caused Lexa’s eyes to widen slightly.

“Did you say Mount Weather?” Lexa asked.

“Yes.” Abby said with a nod.

“Shit…” Lexa replied with a sigh.

“Lexa?” Clarke asked, standing up and walking over to the brunette, “what is Mount Weather?”

“Up until about 10 years ago, Mount Weather was a government funded research facility, based in the capitol.” Lexa said, “they were researching technology, cyberwarfare, weapons. They lost their government funding and were closed down after a raid by the secret service that found they were also researching chemical warfare. Chemical weapons are banned in the majority of the world, under the CWC.”

“The what?” Bellamy asked.

“The Chemical Weapons Convention,” Lexa explained, “chemical and biological weapons were widely banned by the international community after World War 1 in the Geneva Protocol, it was obviously a ban that didn’t stand as mustard gas and the like have been used in many wars since, including World War 2, Vietnam, and others. The ban was reinforced in 1972, and again in 1993. The 1993 ban was enforced under the United Nations, it was internationally enforced in 1997, the only UN countries who didn’t sign up to it are Egypt, North Korea, Israel and South Sudan.”

“Thanks for the history lesson,” Finn said, “but what does that have to do with Mount Weather and why they’re here?”

“If you’d let me finish,” Lexa said, narrowing her eyes as she looked at him, “Mount Weather was put out of business about 10 years ago, when the government found that they were researching new chemical and biological weapons.”

“You’re telling me that our government didn’t have a stockpile of chemical and biological weapons?” Bellamy asked.

“Under international law, all UN States, aside from the 4 I mentioned, had to destroy any stockpiles of weapons that they had,” Lexa replied, “as for whether our country followed those rules as stringently as they were supposed to, that information was well above my paygrade, sorry.”

“So Mount Weather got closed down…” Clarke said, “that obviously didn’t last.”

“There were whispers that they had reopened as a privately funded research company,” Lexa said, glancing at the blonde, “nothing was ever proven or found to my knowledge, but like I said, any information about that kind of thing was probably way above my paygrade, I’m a soldier…”

“Not a scientist.” Clarke said, a small smile tugging at her lips as she recalled the first conversation she’d had with Lexa when the brunette had said that.

“Exactly.” Lexa replied, returning the smile.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Later that night, Lexa was fast asleep in what had been Clarke’s room when she had lived at the compound, the blonde couldn’t sleep so quietly made her way back downstairs. The living room door was open slightly as she walked down the stairs, she could hear hushed voices.

“It’s a military facility,” Abby said, “a secret military facility, what’s to say that they don’t have the means to find Mount Weather.”

“Surely if they had the means to find Mount Weather they’d have done it by now,” Jake replied, with a sigh, “I think you’re reading way too much into this, you’re letting your distrust of the military cloud your judgement.”

“Our daughter is staying with these people; you can’t tell me that you’re happy about that.” Abby said.

“As much as we hate to admit it, Abs, Clarke is an adult,” Jake said with a small laugh, “we can’t keep her locked away in her room and forbid her from hanging out with her new, and old, friends.”

“We need to know what they know,” Abby said, “we need to know where Mount Weather is, what’s going on there, and we need to get our people back.”

“So we work with them,” Marcus suggested, “share information.”

“No.” Abby replied, “that’s not an option.”

“Think about this clearly,” Marcus said, “you said it yourself, it’s a military facility, Abby, we can’t just roll up there and demand they give us access to what they have.”

“What if we had someone on the inside.” Abby said.

Clarke stepped back a little from the door, she really didn’t want to hear the rest of this conversation. As she stepped back she stood on the loose floorboard, causing it to creak, which in turn caused Clarke to curse silently under her breath.

“Clarke,” Abby said, a smile on her face as she saw her daughter, “I thought you were asleep.”

“I needed a drink,” Clarke said, motioning towards the kitchen, “was just about to get a glass of water.”

“Okay, honey.” Abby replied.

Clarke nodded a little and walked into the kitchen, pouring herself a glass of water before she walked back out of the kitchen and down the small hallway to the stairs.

“Goodnight.” She said to her mother before she walked back up the stairs and to her old room.

After placing the glass down on the bedside table she climbed back into bed, careful not to wake Lexa who was still fast asleep. Clarke lay there and looked at the ceiling, running over and over what she had heard her parents and Marcus talking about, she couldn’t help but wonder who her mother thought she could get to work for her on the inside of the military facility.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group, and the new additions, head back to the facility. Finn causes problems between Clarke and Lexa, Lexa and Murphy start what is sure to be an awesome friendship, and Clarke tells the brunette about what her mother has planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I only updated this one really recently, but this part just wouldn't leave me alone as I was trying to write one of the others, so here it is. Thank you for the comments, you're all awesome, each and every one means a lot. Really hope you all enjoy this chapter as it was fun to write.

When Clarke woke up she could tell from the light coming into the bedroom through the small gap in the curtains that the sun was already up, the bed next to her was empty and as she ran her hand over the sheets where Lexa had slept she felt it was already cold, meaning the brunette had long since woken up. She got out of bed and got changed before making her way downstairs, she couldn’t help but wonder why Lexa hadn’t woken her up already, as the previous night when they had gone upstairs to go to sleep Lexa had mentioned wanting to leave as early as they could.

When she got downstairs she found that most of the small group that would be leaving with them were already there, as was her father, sitting in the kitchen with Lexa, Bellamy and Tristan. There was no sign of Lincoln and Octavia though, Clarke figured they were still asleep, or at least making use of the room upstairs that they had spent the night in.

“Well, sleeping beauty awakes.” Bellamy said with a small smile as Clarke walked into the kitchen.

“I thought we were leaving early.” Clarke said to Lexa, ignoring Bellamy’s comment.

“Slight change of plans.” Lexa replied.

“Lexa’s just pointing out the apparent massive flaws in our security that we failed to see.” Jake said with a small smile, motioning to the map of the compound that was on the kitchen table between him and the brunette.

“Not apparent flaws, Mr Griffin, definite flaws,” Lexa said, rolling her eyes at the look on Jake’s face as she again called him Mr Griffin, “sorry, Jake.”

“He’s already asked her to call him Jake 6 times this morning.” Monty said with a small smile as he handed Clarke a coffee.

“How long have you been awake?” Clarke asked, moving to sit next to Lexa at the table, after offering Monty a thankful smile for the coffee.

“A few hours.” Lexa replied with a small smile as she glanced over at the blonde.

“And you didn’t wake me?” Clarke said.

“You were asleep,” Lexa said with a shrug, “I figured you’d wake up soon enough on your own, you’ve been awake not long after me for the last few days.”

“That’s because Aden wakes me up while you get ready,” Clarke said with a laugh, “he’s become my alarm clock.”

“Is Aden another one of your team?” Jake asked, looking between his daughter and the brunette.

“Er, no,” Lexa replied, shaking her head a little, “he’s my kid, kinda, I’m the closest thing he has to a parent.”

“There are kids at the facility?” Jasper asked.

“Yeah,” Lexa said with a nod, “we have 22 kids there, well kids and teenagers. Aden’s the youngest.”

“Cool,” Jasper replied, “I love kids.”

“That’s because you are a kid.” Clarke said, laughing at the mock offended look that quickly spread across Jasper’s face, “it’s endearing… most of the time.”

“How many people do you have up on the wall at the same time?” Lexa asked, turning the conversation back to the security issues, the talk of Aden reminding her that she wanted to get back home as soon as they could.

“Three.” Jake said.

“And they regularly patrol?” the brunette asked, causing Jake to nod, “okay, you need to increase that, anyone who is watching this place with the intentions of getting inside will be able to use the gaps. You need at least 7 people up there, two on the gate at all times, the other 5 positioned at intervals along the full perimeter of the fence.”

“Okay,” Jake said with a nod, writing something down, “anything else?”

“Are we going to have to do that when we get to the facility?” Harper asked from where she was leaning against the far end of the table, “patrol the fence?”

“No,” Lexa replied, shaking her head, “we don’t have fence patrols, it’s an electric fence.”

“Where do you get the power for that?” Jake asked, his brow furrowed slightly, “I assume it’s a high voltage fence, which in my experience takes a lot of power.”

“We have a lot of solar panels,” Lexa said, a small smile tugging at her lips, “that’s where we get the power for the whole facility, we have backup generators, but we haven’t had to use them yet.”

“Smart.” Jake said with an impressed nod.

“I wish I could take the credit,” Lexa said with a laugh, “the panels were there before we were stationed there, and the fence is Raven’s doing.”

“Where do you get your food and everything?” Monty asked.

“There was enough food there in storage to last 3 years if the facility was at full capacity, which it isn’t,” Lexa replied, “with the numbers we have there’s enough food to last closer to 5 years. Granted it’s not the most appetizing food you’ll have ever eaten, but it’s not the worst. We also have a growing area set up, they grow the vegetables and things that can’t be kept in long term storage.”

The radio which was sitting on the table next to Lexa buzzed to life.

“Lexa, you there?” Raven asked over the radio.

“Go ahead, Raven.” Lexa replied.

“Are you guys on your way back yet?” the other girl asked.

“Not yet,” Lexa said, “we should be leaving in the next few hours though, is everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” Raven said, “Anya’s just being a total pain in the ass.”

“Something that you should be used to by now.” Lexa said with a laugh.

“Really feeling the love.” Raven grumbled, “let me know when you’re on your way back.”

“Will do.” Lexa replied before putting the radio down on the table.

The front door opening made everyone turn around and see who it was. Clarke was unsurprised to see that it was her mother, Finn and Marcus.

“You’re all here.” Abby said with a small smile on her lips as she looked around the small group.

“Where else were we going to go?” Murphy asked, “Guatemala?”

“I actually went there once.” Lexa said, a small smirk tugging at her lips.

“The closest I’ve been to Guatemala is Florida.” Murphy said with a shrug, which caused Lexa to laugh a little.

“You’ve never left the country?” Monty asked, looking at him.

“Canada counts, right?” he asked.

“As it’s a different country, I would assume so.” Finn replied.

“How did you like Canada, Murphy?” Lexa asked.

“Everyone was too nice,” he said, “too many smiles, freaked me out.”

“Why do you have this map here?” Abby asked as she saw the map of the compound.

“Lexa and I were just running through some changes we can make to increase our security.” Jake explained, “more patrols on the fence, that kind of thing.”

“New gate.” Clarke said, causing everyone to look at her, “Lexa mentioned it yesterday.”

“As long as you have two people there at all times it’ll be okay,” Lexa said, her eyes fixed on Abby as the older woman looked at her, “no need to replace it.”

“What’s wrong with the gate?” Abby asked.

“It can be climbed.” Lexa replied.

“Biters don’t climb.” Jasper said.

“Some do.” Lexa said with a sigh, “if they can climb our fence, they can climb your gate.”

“We haven’t come across any that can climb.” Abby said.

“Yet.” Lexa said with a sigh, knowing that nothing she ever said to the older Griffin woman would ever be good enough, she looked around the small group, “is everyone about ready to leave?”

They all nodded.

“Where’s Lincoln and Octavia?” Clarke asked, looking at Lexa.

“They’re out on the fence,” Lexa replied, “they offered to help out while you were still sleeping.”

“Told you, you should’ve woken me up.” Clarke said with a small smile.

“Yeah, yeah.” Lexa said, laughing a little as she stood up, before she looked at the small group again, “we need to get whatever you guys want to take into the cars, then we can leave.”

The group nodded and started to follow Lexa out of the house.

“Clarke, can I talk to you before you leave?” Abby asked, stopping the blonde.

Lexa stopped and turned around, looking at Clarke.

“I’ll be out in a minute.” Clarke said.

Lexa nodded a little before she left the house.

Clarke stood and watched as Lexa and the others walked from the house and over towards where the cars were, a small sigh left her lips as she turned and looked at her mother.

“I want you to stay here.” Abby said.

“You know that isn’t going to happen, mom.” Clarke replied, shaking her head a little.

“We can keep you safe here, Clarke.” Abby said, “you don’t need to go back there.”

“I want to go back there.” Clarke said with a sigh, “I know you don’t trust Lexa, but I do.”

“You barely know her, Clarke.” Abby replied.

“I know enough.” Clarke said, “my mind is made up, mom. Keep the radio we talked on before, I’ll speak to you soon.”

Before Abby could say anything else, Clarke walked from the house and over to the cars which were now loaded up and ready to go. She got in the passenger seat of Lexa’s car, Murphy and Finn were sitting in the back of the car.

“Ready to go?” Lexa asked, looking over at Clarke.

“Yeah.” The blonde replied with a nod.

Lexa started the car and drove through the gates which had been opened for them, Bellamy following in his car with three of the others in the back, and Octavia driving the other car, with the remaining three people in the back of her car.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Lexa was sitting outside the barn where they were again spending the night, the rest of the group were inside the barn, catching up on what had happened while Clarke had been away. As the sun was setting, Clarke walked out of the barn and over to where Lexa was sitting with her back resting against the side of the barn.

“There you are.” Clarke said, sitting down next to the brunette.

“Just keeping an eye out for trouble.” Lexa replied with a small smile, “having fun catching up with your friends?”

“They were just telling me what’s been going on while I wasn’t there.” Clarke said, “Jaha apparently started to lose his mind, which is honestly no surprise, he thinks this whole thing is some government planned population control exercise…”

“And he used to be Chancellor?” Lexa asked arching her eyebrow a little as she looked at the blonde.

“He wasn’t always crazy.” Clarke said with a small laugh, “he started to lose it after his son was killed, Wells.”

“Grief affects people in strange ways.” Lexa replied.

“Yeah, but saying this is a government thing?” Clarke said, “that’s just totally crazy.”

“You know that, I know that,” Lexa said, “most people would know that. I’m guessing Wells was his only kid, he’s probably just trying to rationalize everything in his head.”

“I guess.” Clarke said, sighing a little as she rested her head on Lexa’s shoulder.

“Comfortable there?” Lexa asked, a small smirk tugging at her lips as she turned her head a little and looked at Clarke.

“Mhm.” Clarke hummed in response.

Neither of them noticed Finn walk out of the barn, nor did they see him clench his jaw and narrow his eyes as he saw the way they were sitting. They both jumped slightly when he cleared his throat, Clarke sitting back up properly.

“Bellamy sent me out to get a couple of bottles of water.” Finn said as Lexa looked questioningly at him, “and he said something about some extra blankets.”

“Right.” Lexa said, “I’ll get them out of the cars.”

Finn moved to lean against the barn near where Clarke was sitting as Lexa stood up and walked to where they had parked the cars.

“So that’s the reason you didn’t want to stay.” He said.

“What are you talking about?” Clarke asked.

“Lexa.” Finn replied, “are you two…?”

“I didn’t want to stay because it’s not safe,” Clarke said with a sigh, “it has nothing to do with…”

“Right.” Finn said, interrupting her, “so it has nothing do with you sleeping with her.”

“Not that it’s any of your business, because let’s be totally clear here, it’s _not_ your business,” Clarke said, standing up from where she was sitting and looking at him, “but I haven’t slept with Lexa.”

“She stayed in your bed last night.” Finn replied.

“We did nothing but sleep.” Clarke said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head slightly, “but like I said, it’s not your business.”

Clarke walked back inside the barn, leaving Finn standing outside. He was still standing there when Lexa walked back from the cars, carrying the bottles of water and a few blankets.

“Where did Clarke go?” she asked as she saw that the blonde wasn’t where she had been.

“She went back inside.” Finn replied, not looking at her.

“I’ll take these inside,” Lexa said, “if you see anything heading this way, shout.”

Lexa turned to walk into the barn.

“I know what you’re doing.” Finn said, stopping Lexa in her tracks, glancing over at her as she turned her head and looked at him, “with Clarke, I know what you’re doing.”

“And what do you mean by that?” Lexa asked.

“You’re manipulating her,” he said, “so she’ll stay at the facility.”

“She can leave at any time, she knows that,” Lexa replied, “nobody is making her stay anywhere, nobody is forcing her to do anything that she doesn’t want to do, and I’m certainly not manipulating anybody.”

“Right,” Finn said, nodding a little as he looked away from Lexa again, “of course you’re not.”

Lexa shook her head slightly as she walked into the barn, putting the bottles of water and blankets down near where Bellamy and the others were sitting.

“You wanted those?” she said, looking at Bellamy.

“Thanks.” Bellamy said, glancing up at her, he furrowed his brow a little when he saw the look on his face, “you okay?”

When Clarke heard Bellamy ask if Lexa was okay, she looked over at the brunette, and she could tell from the way Lexa’s jaw was set that she wasn’t okay, she was angry or irritated about something.

“Yeah,” Lexa said with a nod, “I’m going to do a walk around of the building, just to double check everything.”

“Okay.” Bellamy replied.

Clarke stood up and followed Lexa from the barn.

“Lexa.” She said as they walked towards the barn doors, the brunette kept walking, “Lexa, wait…”

When Lexa still continued to walk, Clarke grabbed her wrist and stopped her. Lexa looked down at Clarke’s hand around her wrist before she looked at the blonde.

“What’s the matter?” the blonde asked.

“Nothing,” Lexa replied, “I’m fine.”

The coldness in Lexa’s voice made Clarke drop her wrist. Finn watched the interaction from where he was standing, a small smile playing on his lips.

“Do you want some company on the walk around?” Clarke asked.

“It’s fine.” Lexa said, “go hang out with your friends.”

“Right…” Clarke said with a sigh, watching Lexa walk away before she turned and walked back towards the barn, totally ignoring Finn as she walked past him.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Clarke was tossing and turning as she tried to get to sleep, she had her bag under her head as a make-shift pillow and she just couldn’t get comfortable, her brain wouldn’t quieten down enough for her to sleep. With a huff she turned over onto her back and looked up at the ceiling of the barn. It was raining outside, she could hear the droplets hitting the roof, she could also hear them hitting the ground outside as the doors were open.

As she sat up she took a look around, most of the group were fast asleep, apart from Lexa and Lincoln. She knew that Lexa was taking the first watch, as she had done the other night they had spent in the barn, but as Lincoln was awake that meant that it should be someone else’s turn to take watch, as Lexa’s watch was supposed to finish the same time that Bellamy’s did, and the boy was fast asleep.

Clarke stood up, picking the blanket up with her, wrapping it around her shoulders. She walked over to where Lexa was sitting looking outside the barn doors.

“I’ll take watch for a while,” Clarke said to the brunette, “you get some rest.”

“It’s fine,” Lexa replied, not even looking at her, “go back to sleep, I’m not tired.”

With a sigh the blonde sat down.

“Seriously, Clarke, go back to sleep.” Lexa said, clenching her jaw a little.

“Can’t sleep.” Clarke said, “I can’t seem to get comfortable.”

“You didn’t seem to have a problem the last time we stayed here.” Lincoln said from where he was sitting across from the two girls.

“Last time I wasn’t using a bag as a pillow.” Clarke replied.

Without a word Lexa picked up the blanket that was folded up on the floor next to her, she laid it out on the floor next to her legs on the side away from the door.

“Lay down.” She said, motioning to the blanket.

“Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?” Clarke asked, not moving to lay down.

“It’s nothing, I’m fine.” Lexa replied with a sigh.

“It’s obviously not nothing,” the blonde said, “you’ve barely said a word to me since earlier. If I’ve done something…”

“You haven’t done anything, Clarke.” Lexa said with another sigh as she shook her head slightly, still not looking at the blonde.

“Lexa,” Clarke said, bringing her hand up and softly turning Lexa’s face to face her, “talk to me, please.”

“It’s just something Finn said earlier, it’s been bugging me.” Lexa said.

“And what did Finn say?” Clarke asked, determined to get to the bottom of why Lexa had been giving her the cold shoulder since earlier that evening.

“He said something about me manipulating you into staying at the facility,” Lexa said, rolling her eyes at how stupid she knew she sounded, “I told him that nobody is manipulating anybody, and you’re free to leave anytime you want, but I just…”

“Didn’t we have a conversation about this the other night?” Clarke asked with a soft smile, “I vaguely remember saying something about being right where I want to be, does that sound familiar to you?”

“Mockery is not the product of a strong mind, Clarke.” Lexa said with a sigh.

“I’m not mocking you,” Clarke replied, “Finn has got it in his head that the only reason I didn’t want to stay in the compound where my people are is because of you. Granted, that does play a part in it, a pretty big part, but I also know that I’m safer away from there. I told him that whatever this is between you and me is none of his business, but he’s obviously decided that as he couldn’t get the reaction he wanted from me, he was going to say something to you. You’re not manipulating me in any way, shape or form, Lexa, Finn is just being an asshole.”

Lexa didn’t say anything, she just nodded slightly.

Clarke saw movement out of the corner of her eye and looked over to see Tristan waking up. She moved her lips closer to Lexa’s ear.

“Come and be my pillow?” she whispered.

She heard Lexa let out another sigh, but she knew that there was a small smile pulling at the brunette’s lips.

 

x-x-x-x

 

After everything was packed back in the cars in the morning, Octavia couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped her as she passed a very grumpy looking Clarke who was leaning near where the cars were parked.

“Why the grumpy face?” Octavia asked the blonde.

“She’s sulking because she was woken up before she wanted to be.” Bellamy said with a laugh, “her pillow moved.”

“You know you snore right.” Clarke said, almost glaring at him, “I thought someone had started up a chainsaw at one point during the night.”

“I do not snore.” Bellamy replied.

“Sorry to have to tell you, Bellamy,” Lexa said, a small smirk on her lips as she waked past the three of them and towards her car, “you do snore.”

“You could wake the dead.” Murphy said, following after Lexa and getting into the car.

“You all suck.” Bellamy said, shaking his head, walking over to his car and climbing in.

As the others started to make their way to the cars, Clarke stayed where she was. Finn noticed Clarke’s mood as he walked over to her.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Tired,” Clarke replied, “it took me a while to get comfortable last night.”

“Murphy can sit in the front of the car with Lexa, if you sit in the back you might be able to get some sleep before we get there.” Finn said, causing Clarke to forcibly stop herself rolling her eyes at the hopefulness in his voice.

“I can sleep in the front.” Clarke said, glancing over Finn’s shoulder towards Lexa’s car to see the brunette heading in their direction.

“Ready to go?” Lexa asked, looking between Finn and Clarke.

“Sure.” Finn said with a nod.

“I’m tired.” Clarke grumbled.

“Aww,” Lexa said, amusement clear in her voice, “you’re really not a morning person today huh?”

“I might be more of a morning person if you hadn’t decided it was time to wake up at the ass-crack of dawn.” Clarke said, “It’s difficult to sleep when your pillow decides to wake up.”

Finn furrowed his brow a little as he looked between the two of them.

“I actually left you sleeping for a good half an hour after I woke up,” Lexa said, “but the need to pee won over your cuteness, sorry.”

“You could’ve moved a little bit slower than you did,” the blonde replied, “then I may have actually stayed asleep.”

“Clarke,” Lexa said, stepping forwards into Clarke’s personal space, taking hold of her hands, “you turn into a koala when you’re asleep.”

“Well that’s a new development.” Clarke said, “I’m not usually that much of a cuddler.”

“I’m not complaining.” Lexa replied, a small smirk on her lips as she noticed Finn shift a little uncomfortably in her peripheral vision.

“Except when you need to pee.” Clarke pointed out.

“I thought we were leaving.” Finn said.

“The car is open.” Lexa said, not taking her eyes off Clarke.

“We can’t leave without you two,” Finn said with a huff, “so the car being open doesn’t really mean too much, does it.”

“It means the car is open and you can go and sit in it.” Lexa said, arching her eyebrow slightly as she turned her head to look at him.

Finn shook his head and grumbled something to himself as he turned away from Clarke and Lexa and slowly made his way towards the car.

“You enjoyed that a little too much.” Clarke said quietly with a laugh as Finn walked away.

“Not as much as I’m going to enjoy this…” Lexa said.

“Not as much as you’re going to enjoy…” Clarke started to say, the rest of her sentence lost as Lexa’s lips captured hers.

The kiss was over much too quickly for Clarke’s liking.

“Are you feeling more like a morning person now?” Lexa asked.

“Maybe,” Clarke replied, her fingers going through the belt loops of Lexa’s combat trousers, “but maybe you should do that again, just to make sure.”

Lexa wasted no time in bringing their lips together again as Clarke pulled her closer using her belt loops.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“Well, I guess that answers that question.” Murphy said as he and Finn sat in the back seat of Lexa’s car.

“What question?” Finn asked, his jaw clenched as he kept his eyes focused out of the front of the car, and not on the show that Clarke and Lexa were putting on.

“Whether or not they’re fucking.” Murphy said, glancing over at him.

“They’re not.” Finn stated.

“I hate to say it buddy, but the way they were cuddled up last night, when I got up to take a leak, says otherwise.” Murphy replied.

“Clarke told me that they’re not.” Finn said.

“Maybe she told you that to let you down easy,” Murphy said with a shrug, “no way they’d be making out like that, or sleeping as closely as they do, if they weren’t getting biblical.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

“Yo,” Octavia shouted, sticking her head out of the car window, “lovebirds, we’re waiting for you, let’s go!”

Clarke groaned a little as Lexa backed out of what had been a very heated kiss.

“There’s that cute pout again.” Lexa said with a smirk, before she softly kissed Clarke again.

“We need to do this again at some point,” Clarke said, “when we’re alone, like totally alone.”

“Come on.” Lexa said with a small laugh, “we’d better get going before Octavia decides to use us as a target for rifle practice.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

The rest of the drive back to the compound was relatively uneventful, apart from the pair of eyes that Lexa felt burning into the back of her head. She couldn’t help but feel oddly amused, it hadn’t been her intention for her little teasing session with Clarke that morning to turn out the way it had, she had just found the blonde’s sudden attack of morning grumpiness too entertaining to pass up, but she certainly wasn’t complaining.

“This doesn’t look like anything special.” Finn said as the cars drove through the gates of the fence.

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to judge a book by its cover, Finn?” Lexa asked, a smirk on her lips as she looked at him through the rear-view mirror.

“Not sure he can even read books.” Murphy said, causing Lexa to fight the laugh that was threatening to escape her.

As the group got out of the three cars, they all had the same unimpressed look that Finn had on his face.

“Okay guys, listen up.” Lexa said, causing them all to turn and look at her, “when we get inside we need to go through decontamination, it’s nothing to worry about, you’ll all be fine, it’s just a precaution. Once that’s over with, Bellamy and Octavia will take you to your rooms.”

“Let me guess,” Finn said, “we have to stay there until you say otherwise?”

“This isn’t a prison Finn,” Lexa said, looking at him, “you can walk around as much as you want. There are areas that you can’t go without supervision from one of my unit, those areas are marked by a big restricted sign on the doors, and you won’t get in without a keycard, so don’t even try it.”

“Locks can be picked.” Finn said with a smug look on his face.

“Not sure you’re quite getting the keycard thing,” Lexa said, narrowing her eyes a little, “they’re electronic locks, I’m sure Monty can back me up when I say you won’t get very far with lock-picks.”

“If you’re stupid enough you’ll get electrocuted.” Monty said with a shrug.

“I’m really starting to dislike that guy.” Lexa muttered to Clarke as they walked to the door of the main building.

“I’m pretty sure that feeling is mutual.” Clarke replied with a laugh, “he’ll be fine in a couple of days, let’s call it adjustment time.”

“Puppies need adjustment time, children need adjustment time, guys his age do not.” Lexa said, shaking her head a little as she rolled her eyes, before she looked at the group again, “okay, follow me.”

As they walked into the main building, Finn made a mental note of every door they passed, going through ideas in his head of how he could get his hands on a keycard, he was obviously going to need one.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“So,” Raven said, looking at Lexa who was sitting on one of the computer chairs, her hands clasped behind her head, her eyes closed and her feet resting on the table, “how was the trip?”

“Exhausting,” Lexa replied, not opening her eyes, “Jake’s pretty cool, Abby is a total fascist, I like Murphy, something tells me he’s going to be pretty amusing. Oh, and your ex, total asshole.”

“I’m guessing you and Clarke didn’t tone down the hearteyes, huh?” Raven said with a laugh, “he has this need to protect Clarke, like he’s the only person who could possibly know what’s good for her. I figured he’d be over it by now, it was bordering on unhealthy during our senior year.”

“Hearteyes?” Lexa asked, opening her eyes and looking at Raven who shrugged, “and he’s not over it, not by a long way.”

“He’ll probably chill it down in a few days,” Raven replied, “once he gets to know you a little, actually wait, no, that won’t help, that’ll make it worse.”

“I could always just tie him up to a tree or something outside the fence and wait until something comes along and eats him.” Lexa said, closing her eyes again.

Raven couldn’t stop the laugh escaping her as she allowed that mental image to pass through her head. When the door to the control room opened, both girls looked over to see who it was, relaxing a little when Clarke walked into the room.

“Hey.” Lexa said, a soft smile on her lips.

“Hey.” Clarke replied, returning the smile before she walked over and placed a soft kiss on Lexa’s lips.

“Hearteyes.” Raven mumbled.

“Asshole.” Lexa shot back, rolling her eyes a little.

“So,” Clarke said, sitting down on the chair next to Lexa, pulling the brunette’s legs down from the table and resting them over her own, “what are we talking about.”

“Lexa was just telling me about the trip,” Raven said, spinning around in her chair and looking at Clarke, “she was explaining how she likes your dad, she thinks your mom is a fascist, and Finn is a total asshole.”

“That pretty much sums it up.” Clarke said with a nod, causing Lexa to laugh a little.

“Sorry I missed it.” Raven said with a laugh of her own.

“I have a job for you, Raven,” Clarke said, looking at her friend, “if you’re up for it.”

“What kind of job?” Raven asked, as both she and Lexa looked curiously at Clarke.

“Well, the night we spent at my mom’s, I got up in the middle of the night and went downstairs,” Clarke said, avoiding Lexa’s eyes as she hadn’t told the brunette what happened yet, “I heard my mom talking to Marcus and my dad about wanting to get access to the systems here so they could find Mount Weather…”

“Okay…” Raven said, “you have my attention.”

“I take back what I said about your dad.” Lexa said, shaking her head a little as she sighed.

“He and Marcus actually suggested working with you to find Mount Weather, so don’t count my dad out just yet,” Clarke explained, “an idea that my mom disagreed with, obviously. She suggested they have someone work on the inside…”

“Monty.” Raven said.

“No, I don’t think so,” Clarke replied, shaking her head a little, “Monty’s a good guy, and a shit liar, remember that time he and Jasper decided to use the chem lab in high school to try and make LSD.”

“Good point.” Raven said with a nod.

“Remind me to keep those two away from the science area.” Lexa said, causing both Clarke and Raven to laugh, “who do you think it is?”

“Finn.” Clarke replied, “it’s the only thing that makes any sense to me, the others are too easy to read and actually seem to be looking forward to staying here. Finn however… it would have been easy for my mom to convince him to do it.”

“She’d use you.” Raven said, causing Clarke to nod.

“Yeah,” the blonde said, “she knows that he has this crush on me, and it wouldn’t take much for her to make him think that it would help me, also he probably thinks it’d get me away from here and back there.”

“Away from me, you mean.” Lexa said with a sigh, “why didn’t you tell me this before we brought him here, Clarke?”

“I couldn’t tell you at the compound, because you’d have made a point of him not coming, and my mom would’ve flipped out and probably not let us leave at all,” Clarke said, “and I couldn’t tell you in the car because he was with us.”

“You could’ve told me last night.” Lexa said.

“So you could shoot him in the head?” Clarke asked, “if I’d have told you last night you’d have gone all Commander on his ass. As you’ve probably figured out, he’s not that smart, and I guess part of me didn’t want to think he’d actually go along with it. He might not, once he looks around and gets a feel for the place, meets some of the people, he might realise that my mom was wrong, really wrong.”

“And if he doesn’t realise that, then what?” Lexa asked, dropping her feet down from Clarke’s legs as she sat up a little straighter, “you’re asking me to risk a lot on a chance that he _might_ not go through with it, Clarke.”

“I know, I know,” Clarke said with a groan, “can we just keep an eye on him for now, just for a few days, see if he tries anything?”

Lexa didn’t say anything, she just sighed as she ran through her options in her head.

“Please, Lexa,” Clarke said, “just for a few days.”

“Fine,” Lexa said, mentally kicking herself for the decision she just made, “but the first sign that anything is slightly suspicious and I’m shooting him in the leg and dumping him half a mile from the fence.”

“Okay,” Clarke said, “thank you.”

“I really hope that I don’t end up regretting this, Clarke.” Lexa replied, dropping her head down on her folded arms on the table.

At that moment the door opened again.

“And this is the command center.” Bellamy said to the newly arrived group as he walked into the room with them following on behind him, “if you need something, or if you can’t figure something out, come here. Someone will always be here.”

Lexa noticed Finn’s eyes flicking around the room as if he was taking everything in.

“Computers…” Monty said, his eyes lighting up like it was Christmas morning as he walked over to the machines.

“Hands off.” Raven said, slapping his hands away before he could touch anything, “mine.”

“You really need to learn to share, Reyes.” Monty said.

“She doesn’t really play well with others.” Lexa said, amused at the interaction between the two.

“Say we wanted to contact the compound,” Finn said, directing his question at Bellamy, “is this where we’d come?”

“You come to me.” Lexa said, causing him to look at her.

“Do we have to ask your permission to pee too?” Finn asked.

“I’m kinda hoping you can do that without supervision,” Lexa said, “though if you need some pointers I’ve got a three-year-old who can teach you how to pee without getting it on the seat.”

“I’m sure I can use a radio without supervision as well,” Finn said as Murphy laughed at what Lexa had said, “it’s not like it would be my first time.”

“Nobody uses the radio without supervision,” Lexa said, standing up and resting her hands on the table, “I don’t know any of you, and with that lack of knowledge comes a huge amount of mistrust. I’m in charge of this facility, everyone who lives within these walls is my responsibility. Once I know I can trust you, then you can use the radio without someone else being there, but until then I am not putting any of my people at risk.”

“I still need to be supervised when I use the radio.” Octavia said from the doorway.

“That’s because the last time you weren’t supervised you and Lincoln decided to talk dirty over the radio, without turning it to a private channel and Ontari had the kids asking her what you wanted Lincoln to put inside you for a week.” Raven said.

“Rookie mistake.” Octavia said with an unaffected shrug.

“Anyway,” Lexa said, shaking her head, “if you want to talk to someone back at the compound you come here, if I’m not here or if Anya isn’t here, then Raven will radio one of us to come here. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a kid to put to bed.”

Lexa looked at Clarke.

“See you later?” she asked.

“Count on it.” the blonde replied.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This part just wouldn't leave me alone. I enjoy writing this version of Lexa, it's fun. Please drop me a comment and let me know what you think.

 

Lexa was laying on the sofa in her room, trying to relax after yet another long and trying day dealing with Finn. The others of Clarke’s people who had made the trip to the facility were fitting in well, all of them doing as they were asked and actively trying to find a place to slot into the day to day running of the facility. Finn on the other hand seemed to have made it his mission in life to piss Lexa off, questioning everything.

“Heads up, Commander.” Raven said over the radio which Lexa had laying on her stomach.

“What’s up, Raven?” Lexa asked, “and why are you still on duty?”

“Keeping an eye on Finn,” Raven replied, like that explained everything, “speaking of which, he’s on the move, again.”

“Where’s he heading?” Lexa said with a groan as she sat up.

“Your direction, actually.” Raven said.

“Probably not my direction,” Lexa said, “You’ve got to remember who else is around here.”

“Clarke.” Raven said with a sigh.

“Bingo.” Lexa said, “I’ll keep an eye on him, get some rest, Raven.”

“Sure thing, boss lady.” Raven replied.

As Lexa put the radio down on the sofa she knew that Raven wouldn’t be getting any rest until Finn was back in his room, she’d taken Clarke’s request to keep an eye on him to heart.

Lexa stood up and walked to her door, it was still open, as it always was before midnight. As she stood there she could hear footfalls in the corridor, followed by the opening of a door, a door that she assumed was Clarke’s. She waited a few moments, to see if she could hear anything more before she stepped out, quietly, into the hallway.

She could see Finn standing in the doorway of Clarke’s room, he didn’t appear to be doing anything, he was just standing there. Lexa knew Clarke had fallen asleep on the sofa again, as she had been in the blonde’s room as she’d fallen asleep, she’d even laid a blanket over her before leaving the room.

“Something I can help you with?” Lexa asked, walking up behind Finn, causing him to jump, which amused her greatly.

“I couldn’t sleep.” Finn said, backing away from Clarke’s door slightly, “figured I’d go for a walk, her door was open as I passed.”

“That is such a crock of shit.” Lexa replied.

“Excuse me?” Finn said, folding his arms across his chest.

“Do I need to speak slower?” Lexa asked, “use smaller words maybe? You’re full of shit, Finn. Her door was closed.”

“Oh yeah,” Finn said, as he looked at Lexa, “and how do you know that?”

“Because I closed it,” Lexa replied, a small smirk pulling at her lips, “right after I left her room earlier.”

“You think you’re so special don’t you,” he said, stepping closer to Lexa who didn’t even blink, “you think everyone here is scared of you, well let me tell you something, _Commander,_ you don’t scare me.”

“I would hope everyone here isn’t scared of me,” Lexa replied, “it’s not my job to scare them, Finn, it’s my job to protect them.”

“Like you protected Costia?” he asked, “that’s her name right, Aden’s mom?”

Lexa clenched her jaw as she looked at Finn, she knew that he was trying to get her react, she knew he was just trying to push her buttons.

“You couldn’t protect her, and you won’t be able to protect Clarke,” he continued, stepping closer to her again, “she’s going to die, and it’s going to be your fault.”

As Finn stepped closer to her, Lexa grabbed him by his shirt and turned around, slamming him into the wall opposite Clarke’s room.

“Hey!” Anya shouted as she ran down the corridor towards them, “let him go, Lexa.”

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just dump your ass outside the fence and let you get eaten…” Lexa said to Finn.

“Because Clarke wouldn’t let you.” He replied with a smirk.

“Lex,” Anya said as she reached the pair, putting her hand on Lexa’s shoulder, “let him go.”

“What’s going on?” Clarke asked with a yawn as she walked out of her room, her brow furrowing a little as she looked at the door itself, “why was my door open?”

“Ask Finn.” Lexa said, still holding the guy against the wall.

“I couldn’t sleep, so decided to take a walk,” Finn said, his eyes still fixed on Lexa, “I knocked, and thought you answered, so I opened the door.”

“You are so full of…” Lexa said, her anger starting to get the better of her, stopping herself from punching Finn in the face as she felt a hand on the small of her back.

“Lexa…” Clarke said.

Lexa sighed and shook her head a little, before taking her hands off Finn and stepping back a little.

“Get out of here, Finn.” Clarke said to him.

Finn pulled his t-shirt back down where it had ridden up when Lexa grabbed him, before he flashed Lexa a small smirk as he turned and started walking back down the corridor, Lexa’s eyes never leaving his retreating form.

“He’s lying,” Lexa said, her jaw still clenched, “he didn’t knock on your door at all, he just opened it.”

“I figured,” Clarke replied, “but I also know that he wouldn’t do anything to hurt me…”

“He was standing there watching you sleep, Clarke.” Lexa said, turning to look at the blonde.

“I’m going to make sure he gets back to his room.” Anya said, noticing that Finn had slowed down before he reached the turn of the corridor.

“Do you maybe want to lock him in there too.” Lexa said.

“The room doors only lock from the inside, Lex,” Anya said with an arch of her eyebrow, “you know that.”

“Shame.” Lexa replied as Anya followed Finn down the corridor.

“Him watching me sleep, as creepy as that is, can’t be the only thing that happened,” Clarke said, as Lexa turned to look at her again, “I mean, yeah, it’s weird as fuck, but it can’t be what’s got you this pissed off, so what did he say to you?”

“He said I couldn’t protect Costia, so I wouldn’t be able to protect you.” Lexa replied honestly, knowing that lying to Clarke at this point was totally pointless.

“And how does he know about Costia?” Clarke asked, her brow furrowed a little.

“People talk.” Lexa said with a shrug, “he could’ve asked someone who Aden’s mom was, as he knows that I’m not actually Aden’s mom…”

At that moment, Aden walked out of the room, rubbing his eyes.

“What are you doing out of bed, bud?” Lexa asked, walking over to him and picking him up.

“Bad dream and you weren’t there.” He grumbled, laying his head on Lexa’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” Lexa replied, kissing his head softly, “had something I needed to take care of.”

Lexa looked at Clarke.

“Are you going to be okay?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Clarke said with a small nod, “I’ll be fine.”

“Lock your door,” Lexa said, “please…”

Clarke nodded a little before she turned and walked the short distance back to her room.

“Goodnight.” She said with a small smile.

“Night, Clarke.” Aden said sleepily.

Lexa waited until Clarke’s door was closed and she heard the blonde lock it, before carrying Aden back into their room and closing the door behind her.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Raven and Monty were sitting in the control room while the others were all above ground with the kids.

“Do you have camera’s outside everyone’s room?” Monty asked as he looked at the wall of monitors.

“No,” Raven replied, shaking her head a little, “there are obviously camera’s in the hallways for security reasons though.”

“So why are these two camera’s focused on Finns room?” the boy asked.

“That’s… an interesting story actually…” Raven said, running her hand through her hair.

“Abby got to him, didn’t she?” Monty said, “she wanted me to do it, use these systems to find Mount Weather… I told her I wouldn’t do it, figured she’d give up, should’ve known she wouldn’t.”

“We don’t even know where Mount Weather is.” Raven said, shaking her head, “I mean we can get a general area but we don’t know exactly where it is, and rather than risking more lives doing a ground search it was decided that we’d just stay away from the area.”

“Makes sense,” Monty said with a nod, “they’ve been taking people.”

“They don’t take our people,” Raven replied, “they just kill them. How does Abby know about Mount Weather?”

“Lexa talked about it,” Monty said, “when they arrived at the compound they had a guy with them, he needed medical attention after someone shot him. Abby tried talking to him, he said that he was part of Mount Weather’s security detail.”

“You’d think, as a doctor and therefore someone with some intelligence, that she’d see the benefits of working with us,” Raven said with a sigh, “I mean, I know she doesn’t trust the military and to a point I can understand that, as they military didn’t really do much at the time of the outbreak, but Lexa’s good people.”

“You really trust her don’t you.” He said, looking at Raven.

“She saved my life.” Raven replied with a shrug, “more than once.”

“She seems pretty cool,” Monty said, “and Clarke trusts her, though I think that’s partly cause she’s pretty.”

Raven laughed a little, before she saw the door to Finns room open.

“We have movement.” She said, wheeling her chair over to one of the computers.

“I thought he went above ground.” Monty said, his brow furrowed a little.

Raven clicked a few buttons on the computer, bringing up the camera’s on the screen as she followed Finn’s movements through the facility.

“He had a bit of an… altercation with Lexa last night,” Raven said, replying to what Monty had said, “I think if he went above ground she’d just toss his ass over the fence.”

“He’s coming this way.” Monty said, recognizing a room that Finn passed.

“Good spot.” Raven said, quickly bringing up something else on her screen as she heard the door to the room slowly open, before she turned in her chair and looked at Finn, “you need something?”

“Yeah,” Finn replied, thinking on his feet as he hadn’t expected anyone to be in the control room, “can I use the radio?”

“No can do,” Raven said, shaking her head a little, “you know the rules.”

“Come on, Raven,” he said, walking closer to her, “it’s not like I’d be unsupervised, you’re here.”

“But Lexa and Anya aren’t,” Raven replied, “you heard what Lexa said about you guys using the radio without her or Anya around, it’s not happening until she knows she can trust you.”

“She hates me,” Finn said, “she’s never going to trust me.”

“Wonder why she hates you.” Monty mumbled, causing a smirk to tug at Raven’s lips.

“I think we all know why she hates me.” Finn said, “she’s obviously insecure about whatever the thing is she has going on with Clarke, which, let’s be honest, isn’t going to last.”

“You seriously think Clarke would choose you over Lexa?” Raven asked with a laugh, “wow, did you hit your head or something?”

“Think about it,” Finn said as he sat down on one of the chairs at the table, “if it were up to Lexa, I’d be long gone by now, but I’m still here, why else would that be if Clarke didn’t want me here.”

“If it came down to a choice of you or Lexa, you would lose.” Raven said, “trust me on that. Lexa is a better person than you could ever be.”

“I can protect Clarke better than Lexa can,” Finn said, “she has so many people that she needs to take care of, everyone here, the kid, she’ll see that soon enough.”

“My god, you are deluded,” Raven said, rolling her eyes, “listen to me carefully, dickweed, you’re still here because, yes, Clarke wants you here for some reason that I can’t exactly comprehend. You’re her friend, that’s all you’ll ever be, and if you keep pushing Lexa the way you are, you won’t even be that.”

“Problems?” Anya asked from where she was now standing in the doorway, causing Monty and Finn to both jump.

“You’re like a ninja.” Monty said to her, “I need to learn that trick.”

Anya smirked a little, she liked Monty, he was entertaining. He and Jasper were certainly keeping her on her toes while they tried to find somewhere to create their batch of homebrew, they hadn’t managed to best her yet, she was enjoying the challenge.

“Finn wants to use the radio.” Raven said.

“Go ahead.” Anya said, motioning to the radio which sat on the table, as she walked over and took a seat.

“You’re really going to sit there and listen?” Finn asked.

“You plan on talking about something that I shouldn’t know about?” Anya asked, “got some girlfriend somewhere that you want to have a dirty conversation with?”

“Maybe…” Finn mumbled as he reached for the radio.

“In that case I could probably give you a few pointers.” Anya replied, making Raven laugh.

“Abby, it’s Finn, are you there?” Finn said into the radio.

“I’m here,” Abby replied, “how is everything?”

“Everything is pretty secure here,” Finn said, hoping Abby would understand that he couldn’t talk freely about what she had wanted him to find out, though he hadn’t actually managed to find anything out yet, “Clarke was right, it’s a pretty safe set-up.”

“Are they treating everyone well?” Abby asked.

“Yeah,” Finn replied, “round the clock supervision apparently.”

“That’s only for you.” Anya said with a smirk while Finn waited for Abby to respond.

While Finn was talking to Abby, Monty moved his chair closer to where Raven was sitting so he could talk to her without Finn overhearing.

“I was thinking,” he said, “you know the drone you sent to the compound with the radio, could you use something like that to find Mount Weather?”

“It would depend if it’s an over ground facility, or an underground one like this.” Raven said, “I mean, we could find the above ground section of it with a drone I suppose.”

“Flying it at night would make it harder to spot, right?” Monty asked.

“Yeah,” Raven said with a nod, “I’ll run it past Lexa, it might work.”

“Raven,” Finn said, “Abby wants to know if there’s any way you can send over schematics for a fence like the one you have here, so they can be more secure.”

“Nope.” Raven replied, “it’s a closely guarded government secret. Sinclair should be able to rig up something similar though.”

“The fence is a government secret?” Finn asked.

“Everything to do with this facility is a government secret,” Raven said, “there’s no way I’m sending over schematics for any of it.”

“You don’t trust Abby?” he asked.

“The only way to send anything is by drone,” Raven said with a sigh, turning to look at him, “this isn’t about me trusting Abby or not, this is about me making sure that our security plans don’t fall into the wrong hands, simple as that.”

“Whatever.” Finn said, shaking his head, before he told Abby what Raven had said.

“Asshole.” Raven mumbled, turning her attention back to her computer.

As Finn finished his conversation with Abby, the group heard laughter in the hallway.

“Yeah,” Clarke said, as she walked closer to the control room, “but that’s just because you’re a stubborn idiot.”

“I’m a cute stubborn idiot though.” Lexa replied, causing the blonde to laugh again.

Finn clenched his jaw as he looked towards the door.

“Forget about it, dude,” Anya said, a smirk on her lips as she stood up and patted Finn on the shoulder, “it’s not going to happen.”

The laughter stopped as Lexa and Clarke walked into the control room and saw Finn sitting there.

“Anything to report, Raven?” Lexa said.

“I found another shopping mall that we could go and check out,” Raven said, bringing up a map on the bigger screen, “it’s not as big as the last one we went to, but there might still be something there worth checking out.”

“How far away is it?” Lexa asked, walking up to Raven’s chair and looking over her shoulder at the smaller map on the screen.

“You should be able to get there and back with an overnight.” Raven said, glancing back at Lexa.

“Okay,” Lexa said with a nod, before turning and looking at Clarke, “you up for a trip?”

“Sure,” Clarke replied with a small smile, “why not.”

“Finn?” Lexa asked, looking at him.

“You’re going to let me carry a gun but you won’t let me use the radio without supervision?” he asked in reply.

“Who said anything about a gun,” Lexa said, a small smirk on her lips, “I was going to use you as bait.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

While Lexa was loading some necessities in the car, Anya walked up behind her.

“Are you sure about taking him with you?” Anya asked.

“Safer than leaving him here,” Lexa said with a shrug, closing the back of the jeep, “and if he happens to get eaten along the way I certainly won’t lose any sleep about it.”

“Why does Murphy get a semi-automatic and I have to carry a handgun?” Finn asked, as he and Murphy followed Octavia out of the building.

“I actually like Murphy.” Lexa said with a smirk.

Clarke stopped the laugh that was threatening to escape her as she looked at Lexa, the brunette just shrugging a little.

“Okay,” Octavia said, “Lincoln, Bellamy and Finn, you’re with me.”

“Murphy,” Lexa said, looking at him, “you and Emori are with me and Clarke.”

“Awesome,” Murphy replied, sarcastically, “time to get suffocated by sexual tension again, my favourite thing in the world.”

“Get in the car, John.” Emori said, walking over to the car.

As Murphy shrugged, sighed and followed behind her, Lexa and Clarke looked at each other as they both started laughing.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Lexa was on first watch with Bellamy and Lincoln, as the others laid out blankets to sleep on she noticed how Finn put his blanket down next to Clarke’s.

“Don’t let him get to you.” Bellamy said, as he noticed the look on Lexa’s face.

“The only way he’s likely not to get to me is if he suddenly stops breathing.” Lexa replied honestly.

“You really don’t like him, huh?” Octavia asked, walking up next to Lexa.

“You can tell?” Lexa asked, looking at the younger girl, “I thought I was doing a bang-up job of hiding that.”

Octavia laughed as she grabbed a bottle of water before going to lay down. Clarke got back from using the bathroom and saw that Finn had moved his blanket over next to hers, she rolled her eyes and walked over to pick her blanket up.

“Hey.” Finn said, from where he was sitting on his blanket, “hope you don’t mind me sleeping here, I figured if it gets cold…”

“Stop it, Finn.” Clarke said, picking up her blanket, “if you piss her off enough she will do something that I won’t be able to stop.”

“So we can’t be friends now?” Finn asked, “That would upset her?”

“But friends isn’t what you’re after, is it.” Clarke said with a sigh, shaking her head a little.

“Your mom asked me to keep an eye on, Clarke.” Finn said, “so that’s what I’m doing.”

“I don’t need you to keep an eye on me, Finn,” Clarke replied, “I’m more than capable of taking care of myself.”

Before Finn could say anything else, Clarke walked over to where Lexa was sitting.

“Would you mind?” she asked, motioning to the floor next to Lexa’s leg.

“Not at all.” Lexa replied with a soft smile as she put her legs down flat so Clarke could rest her head on her legs.

Once Clarke was comfortable, Lexa started to softly run her fingers through the blonde’s hair as she looked out into the night.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter just didn't seem to want to come to an end. The Mount Weather plot moves along a little, and Finn is a bit of an idiot. Don't forget to comment, let me know what you think.

 

The group stood around the hood of Lexa’s jeep as the brunette laid out a map of the mall that Raven had found so they could all see it.

“Okay,” she said, looking around the small group, “I want us split into teams of two, if we split the mall into quarters we should be able to cover it all within a couple of hours. Octavia, I want you and Lincoln to head upstairs, you two take the right section.”

“No problem.” Octavia said with a nod.

“Emori, you and Murphy take downstairs right,” Lexa said, causing both Murphy and Emori to nod, “Clarke and I will take downstairs left, Bellamy and Finn you two take upstairs left. I don’t want anybody going into anywhere alone, okay, we don’t know who or what is in there, two pairs of eyes are always better than one.”

With that they all made their way in through the main doors of the mall, before Octavia, Lincoln, Bellamy and Finn all went upstairs and Emori and Murphy started to look around the area Lexa had given them, as Lexa and Clarke made their way to the area they’d been looking.

“So,” Clarke said, as they walked, guns out and eyes looking around, “what exactly are we looking for?”

“Anything that can be useful.” Lexa replied, “pharmacies are always good, any food supplies that can be stored, anything that can make the kids’ lives more enjoyable.”

“This place looks pretty trashed.” Clarke said as she looked into one of the small electronics stores.

“Malls were hit pretty quickly after the outbreak started,” Lexa said, “when the looting started, after the cops lost what little control they had over the population. Lucky for us, people seemed to be more interested in top of the range games consoles and flat screen tv’s rather than anything that would actually be of use.”

The first place they looked into was one of the pharmacies, as they walked down aisle they both kept looking around to make sure there was nothing in there that could harm them, once they’d reached the check-out area Lexa was satisfied that nothing was going to bite them so they got to picking up anything that was left which could be useful.

 

x-x-x-x

 

About twenty minutes later after Clarke and Lexa had picked up some things from an arts shop for the kids, they were walking towards one of the other small stores when Clarke spotted Bellamy walking along the upper level of the mall, alone.

“Where’s Finn…” Clarke said, causing Lexa to look upstairs where the blonde was looking.

Lexa sighed and rolled her eyes, walking towards the stairs that lead to the upper level.

“Bellamy,” she said when they reached the top level, “where’s Finn?”

“I turned my back for two minutes, to grab some supplies, when I turned back he was gone,” Bellamy said, “I can’t find him.”

Clarke looked at Lexa.

“I’ll find him.” Lexa said with a sigh, before she looked at Bellamy, “stay with Clarke.”

Bellamy nodded a little, as Lexa turned to walk away in the direction Bellamy had come from, Clarke gripped her wrist, stopping her. As Lexa turned back to face the blonde, Clarke kissed her softly.

“Be safe.” Clarke said.

“I’ll do my best,” Lexa said with a small smile, “stay with Bellamy, okay?”

Clarke nodded before Lexa turned and walked away.

“She’ll be okay.” Bellamy said.

“Yeah…” Clarke replied with a sigh.

 

x-x-x-x

 

As she walked away from Clarke and Bellamy, Lexa kept her eyes open as she looked around for any clue as to where Finn might be. It would’ve been pretty easy for her to just leave him, but deep down she knew she couldn’t do that, she wasn’t that kind of person. Though at times like this she really wished she was. Finn had been nothing but a pain in the ass, but she knew Clarke cared about him, and she had told Abby and Jake that anyone who went to the facility would be safe.

She heard something clatter to the floor as she passed another small pharmacy.

“Finn?” Lexa called, walking into the store.

It didn’t take her long to find him.

“I thought I told you to stay with Bellamy.” Lexa said, a small sigh of relief escaping her as she saw he was unharmed.

“Bellamy was busy checking out something else,” Finn said, “I figured I’d check this place out.”

“And you couldn’t wait for Bellamy to finish?” Lexa asked.

“Figured it was quicker this way.” Finn said with a shrug.

It all happened fast, one minute Lexa was about to rip into Finn for being an idiot and once again ignoring what she had said, the next a hand shot out from underneath the display behind him and gripped at his ankle.

As Finn fell to the floor, Lexa pointed her gun in the direction of the hostile as the display fell over. Finn was flailing around, trying to kick out at the thing that had hold of his ankle, Lexa couldn’t get a clear shot, she’d either hit Finn or miss completely and the noise would attract a lot of attention to the confined space. Finn moved over onto his back, pointing his gun at the biter that was now trying to take a chunk out of his leg.

Finn pulled the trigger on the gun, nothing happened.

“Shoot it.” Lexa said, as she moved, trying to get a clear shot.

“The trigger is jammed.” Finn said, trying again to pull the trigger.

“Turn the safety off.” Lexa said.

As Finn was messing around trying to figure out how to take the safety off the gun, the biter finally found some flesh to bite. As it opened its mouth, ready to sink its teeth into Finn’s leg, Lexa finally had a clear shot.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Clarke and Bellamy were checking out another shop as a gunshot rang out through the mall.

“Lexa…” Clarke said, dropping what she had in her hand, before she took off running in the direction that Lexa had gone, Bellamy not far behind her.

They saw Lexa walking out of the pharmacy, with Finn, the guy had his arm around Lexa’s shoulders as he limped alongside her. Octavia and Lincoln were running from the opposite direction, both slowing as they saw Lexa and Finn. Clarke rushed over to the pair.

“Are you okay?” Clarke asked, her eyes frantically looking for some kind of wound on Lexa.

“I’m fine,” Lexa said, “this fucking idiot still had the safety on his gun.”

“How was I supposed to know…” Finn started.

“You don’t go into a hostile area with the safety still on your gun.” Lexa said, interrupting him as Bellamy put his arm under Finn’s other arm, helping him over to a bench.

“Well excuse me, we’re not all military trained you know.” Finn said as he sat down.

“It’s not military training, it’s common sense.” Lexa said, her jaw clenched.

“Hey,” Clarke said, stepping in front of Lexa, softly cradling her face, “are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah,” Lexa replied, with a small smile and a nod, “I’m okay.”

“We’ve got blood.” Bellamy said, looking back at Lexa from where he was crouched down in front of Finn.

“Were you bitten?” Clarke asked, walking over to Finn.

“No,” Finn said, shaking his head, “I mean, I don’t think so, it all happened so fast, maybe I was…”

Lexa rolled her eyes and shook her head, she knew full well that Finn hadn’t been bitten, Finn knew that as well, but he also knew that he now had Clarke’s attention, so he was certainly acting up.

“He wasn’t bitten.” Lexa said.

“There’s blood,” Finn said, “maybe I was bitten.”

Murphy and Emori arrived, bags full with the things they had found.

“Looks like I missed all the fun, huh.” Murphy said, a smirk tugging at his lips as he looked at Lexa.

“Finn got a scratch.” Lexa said, a small smirk of her own playing on her lips as she arched her eyebrow slightly.

“It doesn’t look like you’ve been bitten.” Clarke said as she looked at Finn’s ankle.

“Would you look at that…” Lexa said sarcastically, rolling her eyes and shaking her head a little as Clarke looked back at her, “sorry…”

“Okay,” Clarke said, fighting to keep the amusement out of her voice, “I guess the search for supplies is over.”

“We might as well start our trip back,” Lexa agreed, “we’re probably not going to find much more here anyway.”

“I’ll just bandage up his ankle.” Clarke said, causing Lexa to nod slightly.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Everyone was settling down for the night, Lexa and Bellamy were taking the first watch and Lincoln was doing one last perimeter search. As time passed and Lincoln hadn’t returned Lexa was getting a little worried. She and Bellamy decided to go out and check on him, leaving a gun with Clarke so she could make sure the others were okay as Octavia insisted on going with Lexa and Bellamy, as Lexa had assumed she would. The three of them made their way from the building, the first thing Lexa noticed were the jeeps were both slightly lopsided. She walked over to them and checked the tires. One tire on each car had been slashed.

“What is it?” Octavia asked.

“Slashed tires.” Lexa replied with a sigh.

“Biters don’t slash tires.” Octavia said as Lexa stood back up.

Lexa grabbed one of the flashlight from her car, turning it on she flashed it around, finding Lincoln’s gun on the ground not far from the cars. She walked over to it, noticing signs of a struggle.

“What the hell happened…” Bellamy said.

They all jumped slightly as they heard the roar of engines. Lexa quickly aimed the beam of the flashlight towards the noise, and saw three cars speeding away.

“We have to go after them.” Octavia said.

“O…” Lexa said.

“They have Lincoln,” Octavia said, looking at Lexa, “we have to…”

Octavia’s sentence was cut short when the sound of Clarke yelling Lexa’s name filled the night.

The three of them turned back to the building to see a group of hostiles moving towards the building.

“Grab a gun from the car.” Lexa said to Octavia as she rushed towards the building.

The building they were staying in was made up almost completely of wood, Lexa knew shooting without aim and concentration would be a bad idea as she had no idea where everyone was within the building and she didn’t want to accidently shoot someone.

It didn’t take long for Lexa, Bellamy and Octavia to take out most of the biters. There were two trying to climb in through the windows, Lexa knew that they’d need to really place their shots, so not to hit anyone within the building.

As Lexa was lining up her gun to shoot one, two shots sounded from the building and both of the things trying to make it through the windows fell still. Lexa let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding as Clarke pushed one body back through the window, and Murphy dealt with the other.

Lexa, Octavia and Bellamy went back inside the building.

“Everyone okay?” Lexa asked, looking around the small group.

“Yeah,” Clarke said with a nod, her hand shaking as she put the gun down on the floor in front of her, “we’re good.”

“We need to go after Lincoln.” Octavia said.

“We don’t know where they’re taking him,” Lexa said, turning back to look at the younger girl, “we don’t even know who they are.”

“So we’re just going to stay here and do nothing?” Octavia asked, “if it was Clarke…”

“Enough.” Lexa said, walking over to Octavia, “I get it, O, I do. We’ll find him, we just need to know where they’ve taken him. I’m going to get on the radio and talk to Raven, he was wearing his watch right?”

Octavia nodded.

“So we’ll find him,” Lexa said, “okay, we’re going to find him.”

Lexa walked over to her backpack and grabbed the radio.

“Raven,” she said, hitting the button on the side, “you there?”

“She’s not here.” Came the reply.

“Monty?” Lexa asked.

“Yep.” Monty replied.

“Where’s Raven?” Lexa asked, her brow furrowed slightly.

“Bathroom,” Monty said, “anything I can do for you?”

“I need to speak to Raven.” Lexa replied with a sigh, “can you get her to radio me when she’s back please, tell her that it’s seriously important, not something that can wait until she’s ready.”

“Sure thing,” Monty said, “you sure I can’t help?”

“Unfortunately not,” Lexa said, “thanks though.”

Lexa sighed as she slid down the wall so she was sitting on the floor, and put the radio down next to her.

“What happened?” Clarke asked, walking over and sitting down next to Lexa.

“We lost Lincoln.” Lexa said, clenching her jaw slightly.

“What do you mean you lost Lincoln?” Finn asked, “you can’t just lose people.”

“I mean we have no idea where he is.” Lexa replied, her eyes narrowing as she looked at him.

“Awesome,” Finn said, “so we’re supposed to trust you to keep us safe and you can’t even keep your own people safe?”

“Feel free to go and take a long walk outside,” Lexa said, “see how far you get on your own.”

“So what are we going to do?” Murphy asked, taking Lexa’s attention off Finn before she got up and punched him, “I’m guessing you have some crazy ass idea to get him back?”

“We need to know where he’s going first,” Lexa said with a sigh, “which is why I need Raven.”

“How is Raven going to be able to help?” Finn asked.

“That’s need to know, and you don’t need to know.” Lexa replied.

“Just what is it that you hate about me, Lexa.” Finn said.

“How long have you got?” Lexa asked in reply.

“You don’t know me,” Finn said, “you know nothing…”

“I know enough.” Lexa said.

The radio next to Lexa crackled to life.

“You wanted to talk to me?” Raven asked, as Lexa picked up the radio.

“Yeah,” Lexa replied, “I need you to track Lincoln.”

“What do you mean ‘track Lincoln’?” Raven asked in reply.

“He was out doing a perimeter check,” Lexa said, “he was gone too long so Bell, O and I went out to check on him. The tires were slashed on the cars, Lincoln’s gun wasn’t far away, then we heard three cars speed away and a group of hostiles hit the house, meaning we couldn’t follow.”

“I take it that he’s wearing the…” Raven said, “thing.”

“Yeah,” Lexa replied, “I need you to track him, keep me updated about where he is. We’ll be back tomorrow, I want Anya and the rest of the team ready to leave when we get there.”

“Okay,” Raven said, “is everyone else okay?”

“Finn got a scratch,” Lexa said, fighting the small smirk on her lips as she saw Clarke lower her head slightly to hide the smile on her lips, “he’ll live though, other than that, we’re all good.”

“Right, I guess we’ll see you tomorrow.” Raven said.

As Lexa put the radio down, she sat back down next to Clarke and the blonde rested her head on the brunette’s shoulder.

“Not meaning to sound like the voice of doom here,” Clarke said quietly, so only Lexa could hear her, “but how are we going anywhere when the tires have been slashed?”

“It was only one tire on each car,” Lexa said, “each car has a spare tire, we’ll be fine.”

“Do you think it was Mount Weather that took Lincoln?” Clarke asked.

“I don’t know,” Lexa replied with a sigh, softly kissing Clarke’s head, “we’ll find out tomorrow…”

“And if it was, what are we going to do?” the blonde asked, lifting her head and looking at the brunette.

“We’re going to bring him home.” Lexa said, a small smile tugging at her lips.

 

x-x-x-x

 

A little over an hour later, Lexa was fighting to keep her eyes open, she felt someone tap her leg. Her eyes snapped open and she saw Murphy crouching next to her, an odd little smile on his lips.

“Get some rest, I’ll take over.” He said quietly, so as to not wake Clarke who was fast asleep with her head still resting on Lexa’s shoulders and her arm wrapped across the brunette’s waist.

“I’m fine.” Lexa said, shaking her head a little as she blinked a few times trying to wake herself up.

“Seriously,” Murphy said, “get some rest, I’ll wake you up at the first sign of trouble, you won’t miss anything, I promise.”

“Okay…” Lexa replied, resting her head back against the wall.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Finn had been complaining about his ankle hurting the whole way back to the facility, so as soon as Lexa and the others arrived back, Lexa told Bellamy to take Finn to medical before she went to the control room to find out where Lincoln was, Octavia obviously not far behind her.

“Tell me something Raven.” Lexa said as she walked into the room.

“The astronaut’s footprints on the moon will probably stay there for 100 million years,” Raven said, slowly turning around in her chair, “oh, you meant tell you something about Lincoln, right. So, I tracked the watch, the last signal I picked up was…”

She clicked a few buttons on her keyboard, bringing up a map on the large screen.

“Right here.” She said, highlighting an area on the map.

“What do you mean the last signal you picked up?” Octavia asked, “those watches constantly broadcast the location, right?”

“It could mean a couple of things,” Lexa replied, “they dropped the watch, broke the watch or somehow damaged it in some way…”

“Or…?” Octavia asked.

“They could be underground,” Lexa said, “there are a few reasons why we wouldn’t get the signal.”

“Or he could be dead.” Octavia said, “you forgot that one.”

“If they were going to kill him, they’d have done it last night,” Lexa said, trying to calm Octavia down, “they took him for a reason, O, that reason wouldn’t be to kill him.”

Octavia didn’t say anything more, she just sat down at the table.

“Is there anything notable in that area?” Lexa asked, looking between Raven and the map.

“It’s close to the edge of our no go area,” Raven replied, “close by we have the compound where Clarke’s people are, there’s a hillside complex about 5 miles west of the point where the signal dropped out. There’s a large hospital and some kind of commercial area…”

“A hillside complex?” Lexa asked, causing Raven to nod, “can you bring up any images of it?”

“I can bring up an image from before the whole world went to shit,” Raven said, typing away on her keyboard, “not sure what good that’ll do you now though.”

Raven brought up the image of the hillside complex on the screen, it basically looked like a house stuck in the side of the mountain. It had a flat room and a large balcony that spanned the length of the upper floor.

“Well I’ll be damned…” Lexa said.

“What are you seeing boss lady?” Raven asked, “all I see is something that a rich person with more money than sense probably built.”

“You’re a genius, Raven,” Lexa said, a smirk tugging at her lips, “what do you see, or more importantly what don’t you see?”

Raven furrowed her brow as she looked at the image, obviously trying to see what Lexa was talking about.

“There’s no entrance…” Clarke said, walking into the room as she looked at the image on the big screen.

“Bingo.” Lexa said as she glanced at the blonde.

“Is there any way you can find building plans?” Clarke asked, looking at Raven, “maybe find out what that building is?”

“If you can give me about an hour or so,” Raven said, “I’m sure I can dig something up.”

“You have an hour.” Lexa said.

“Lexa,” Octavia said, “that’s another hour we’re not out there looking for Lincoln.”

“You’re not coming anyway,” Lexa said, raising her hand a little as Octavia opened her mouth to say something, “I need you here. You’re too emotional to be out there, Octavia, you’ll put yourself and everyone else in danger.”

“You need me out there,” Octavia said, pushing the chair away as she stood up, “you know that I can fire a gun better than Clarke or any of the other new arrivals.”

“Clarke is staying here too.” Lexa said.

“I am?” Clarke asked, looking at Lexa.

“Yes.” Lexa replied, “Anya is coming with me, I need someone here to…”

“Watch Aden.” Clarke said with an accepting nod.

“Lexa,” Octavia said, “I can’t just stay here and do nothing.”

“You won’t be doing nothing,” Lexa said, turning to look at her, “you’ll be keeping people safe.”

Octavia didn’t say anything, she just glared at Lexa before leaving the room.

“I think she’s going to murder you in your sleep.” Clarke said with a small laugh.

“She’s going to have to wait a few days to do it.” Lexa said, “now I need to go and tell Aden that I’m going to be gone.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” Clarke asked.

“Please.” Lexa replied with a small smile.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Clarke waited outside the room as Lexa went in to get Aden. The young boy’s face lit up when he saw Clarke and he dropped Lexa’s hand and ran over and hugged Clarke’s legs.

“Oh, I see how it is.” Lexa said, a mock pout on her lips.

Aden started to giggle.

“It’s fine,” Lexa said, folding her arms across her chest and turning her head dramatically turning her head away from Clarke and Aden, “I’m obviously not your favourite anymore.”

Clarke couldn’t stop the smile that took over her lips as Aden ran from her to Lexa.

“I love you,” Aden said, looking up at Lexa and tugging the bottom of her shirt, “don’t be sad.”

“Oh now you love me huh?” Lexa asked, picking him up.

“No,” Aden said, shaking his head, “I loves you all the time.”

“Well that’s okay then.” Lexa said, placing a soft kiss on his head, “did you behave for Anya?”

“Yep.” Aden said, he furrowed his brow a little as he looked at Lexa, “you are leaving again.”

“Some bad men took Lincoln,” Lexa said putting the young boy down and crouching down in front of him, “we need to go and find him.”

“You always leave.” Aden said, his bottom lip trembling as his eyes filled with tears.

“And I always come back.” Lexa said.

“One day you won’t,” he said, backing away from Lexa, “one day you won’t come back, and then I’ll be all alone.”

“Aden…” Lexa said, slowly moving towards him.

“No.” Aden said, before he turned around and ran past Clarke and down the corridor.

“Well I guess I deserved that.” Lexa said, closing her eyes as she rested back against the wall.

“He’s just upset, that’s all,” Clarke said, walking over to where the brunette was stood and putting her hands on Lexa’s hips, “he didn’t mean it.”

“He was right though,” Lexa replied, opening her eyes and looking at the blonde, “one day I might not come back…”

“You just need to try extra hard to make sure you do.” Clarke said with a soft smile, “we should probably go and look for him, right?”

“He can’t go too far.” Lexa said, “but you’re right, we probably should.”

Clarke stepped back from Lexa and held out her hand, Lexa smiled a little and shook her head before taking Clarke’s hand.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“But,” Murphy said, “you know she’s always going to try and come back, right, she’s going to try really really hard to always come back.”

Clarke and Lexa stopped outside Murphy’s room as they heard him talking to someone.

“But if she doesn’t come back I don’t have anyone else.” Aden said.

“That’s a total lie,” Murphy replied, “you’ve got Anya, Raven, Octavia, Bellamy… you’ve got Clarke, you’ve got a lot of people here who love you, kid.”

“I like Clarke.” Aden said.

“And I know Clarke loves you.” Murphy said.

“Do I gots you as well?” Aden asked.

“Sure,” Murphy said, “you’ve got me as well.”

“So we can be friends?” the young boy asked.

“You really want to be my friend?” Murphy asked.

“Yup,” Aden replied, “and I can help you with Emori.”

“What do you mean help me with Emori?” Murphy asked.

“You think she’s pretty,” Aden said, “I can be your wingman.”

Clarke and Lexa couldn’t stop the laughs escaping them at Aden’s words, which gave away the fact that they were outside the room.

“It’s rude to listen at the door.” Aden yelled.

“You tell them, kid.” Murphy said.

“Sorry,” Clarke said as she walked into the room, “we didn’t mean to listen.”

A small smile tugged at Lexa’s lips as she walked into the room and saw Aden sitting on Murphy’s knee.

“It’s good to see you making friends, Murphy.” Lexa said.

“What can I say,” Murphy replied with a shrug, “I think I’ve finally found someone here on my wavelength.”

“Would it be okay if I talked to you, Aden?” Lexa asked as the young boy purposefully ignored her, “I don’t want to leave knowing you’re mad at me.”

“I’m not mad.” Aden said, his brow furrowed a little as he looked at his hands, “I just don’t want you to leave again.”

“I know, buddy,” Lexa said, crouching down in front of where Aden was sitting on Murphy’s knee, “and I don’t want to go, but I have to. We need to find Lincoln and bring him home.”

“I know.” Aden said with a dramatic sigh.

“You know I’m going to do everything I can to come back, right?” Lexa said, to which Aden nodded, “and you know that you’re always going to be my biggest reason to make sure I come back, right?”

“What about Clarke?” Aden asked in reply, “she’s a reason to come back too, right?”

“Well, yeah,” Lexa said, feeling herself start to blush slightly, which caused Murphy to smirk, “enough of the smirking Murphy, don’t forget I know you think Emori is pretty.”

“Is Anya staying again?” Aden asked.

“No,” Lexa said, shaking her head a little, “she’s coming with me.”

“Please don’t make me stay with Indra,” Aden said, his eyes widening a little as he looked at Lexa, “she makes me listen to dead people music to sleep.”

“Dead people music?” Clarke asked with a laugh.

“Indra has a thing for classical music, believe it or not.” Lexa said with a laugh of her own, “but no, Aden, I’m not going to make you stay with Indra. Clarke is staying here.”

“You’re going to take care of me?” Aden asked as he looked at Clarke.

“If that’s okay.” Clarke said with a small nod.

“I think I might like that.” Aden replied with a nod of his own.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Aden was standing with Raven as Clarke and Lexa talked near the car.

“How long are you going to be gone?” Clarke asked.

“No more than a week,” Lexa replied, “hopefully about 4 days.”

Clarke nodded a little.

“Hey,” Lexa said, softly lifting Clarke’s head up with a finger under her chin, “it’s going to be okay.”

“I know,” Clarke said with a small nod, “I just…”

“I’m coming back, Clarke.” Lexa said before softly capturing Clarke’s lips with her own.

The kiss ended with both girls laughing a little as Aden giggled from where he was standing with Raven.

“Don’t let Aden talk you into thinking that chocolate is a suitable breakfast food,” Lexa said, a smirk tugging at her lips as she looked past Clarke to Aden, “no matter how much he pouts.”

“Rude…” Aden muttered, making Lexa and Clarke both laugh again.

“I’ll see you soon.” Lexa said, as she looked back to Clarke again.

“I’ll be here.” Clarke replied.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the massive delay with this, my tablet ended up totally trashed so I got a new laptop, lost all my writing though which blows big time. Drop me a comment, let me know what you think. Enjoy.

Clarke was sitting on the sofa in Lexa and Aden’s room, the young boy asleep with his head on her lap. She had put him to bed two hours before, only for him to wake up again about 45 minutes later after having a nightmare. The blonde couldn’t help but wonder if he had nightmares every time Lexa was away, she also wondered if Lexa knew about them. She couldn’t ask Anya or Indra, as both were out of the compound with Lexa, searching for Lincoln.

Octavia had spent the few hours since the others left walking around the facility muttering about how she should be out there, though she had tried to find something to do, something to occupy her mind and her time. Clarke had found her in the command room with Raven and Monty, the three of them watching the small red dots flashing on one of the computer screens. The last time Lexa had been away from the facility without Clarke, the blonde had spent most of her time watching those very same dots flashing on the screen. Raven had warned them that the signals from the watches everyone was wearing might drop out the closer they got to what they suspected was the location of Mount Weather.

She’d had a few ideas about why Lincoln’s signal had dropped out, there were the obvious reasons that Lexa had mentioned; the watch could have been broken and dumped, the signal may have been blocked depending on how deep underground the Mount Weather facility was and there was obviously the chance that Lincoln could be dead, though nobody wanted to think about that.  As Lexa had already pointed out, if they wanted him dead they would have just killed him instead of taking him, there was obviously a reason that they had taken him, and Lexa was determined to find out what that reason was and bring Lincoln home.

The only thing that had halted Octavia’s bad mood was being around Aden, she obviously didn’t want the young boy to worry any more than he already was. Clarke knew he was worried, he’d told her as much as she put him to bed and she wanted nothing more than to promise him that Lexa would be coming home, but she knew that she couldn’t do that. Nothing was guaranteed in the world that they lived in. In all honesty, Clarke was as worried as Aden was, but she obviously couldn’t show it.

 

x-x-x-x

 

As most of the others slept, Lexa was sitting awake looking at the map of the area on the tablet that Raven had given her before they left, she needed to know exactly where they were going and what kind of cover there was nearby if they needed it. The entrance to what they assumed was the Mount Weather facility was at the end of what used to be a service road, there we no buildings anywhere near it, the only things that dotted the sides of the road were some bushes and trees, neither of which would offer them any kind of real cover.

She put the tablet down on the ground in front of her, sighed and ran her hand through her hair. If she had her way they would have driven through the night, but she knew they wouldn’t be able to reach their destination before the batteries on the cars ran out.

She heard movement from where the others were sleeping and looked up to see Anya standing up and walking over to her.

“Hey,” Anya said as she sat down next to Lexa, “you doing okay?”

“Little restless,” Lexa replied with a sigh, “I just want to get there, find out what we’re dealing with, find Lincoln and go home.”

“Me and Indra were talking earlier,” Anya said, “we’re wondering what we’re going to do when we get there. I mean, we can’t exactly just rock up and knock on the door, we have no idea what they’re doing out there. We don’t even know how many people are working and living there.”

“We’re going to need to see what we’re dealing with then we get there,” Lexa said with a shrug, “Raven couldn’t find any information on any of the databases we have access too, after they got shut down by the government they pretty much disappeared, there’s no sign of them at all. We can safely assume that whoever is there will be armed, I think it’s pretty obvious that they’re using infected people in some way, so we have to add that threat…”

Lexa furrowed her brow a little as she caught the sight of something on the map which was still showing on the tablet.

“What?” Anya asked, looking between Lexa and the tablet.

Lexa picked the tablet back up.

“Raven got me a map of the area before we left,” Lexa explained, “I was just looking at it to see if there was anything in the area around our destination that we could use as cover or anything like that, I didn’t realise before, but Clarke’s people aren’t that far away from where we’re heading. I mean, we knew they were in the same geographical area, because they’re in the red zone, but take a look at this…”

Lexa held the tablet out so Anya could see it.

“This is where Clarke’s people are,” she said, pointing to a specific point on the map, “and we’re heading here…”

“That’s less than a mile away.” Anya said, “how did we not know they were that close?”

“When we went to pick up Clarke’s friends, I followed the directions she gave me, we went in from the south,” Lexa said, “Abby had to know that they had some kind of facility near them. They wouldn’t be able to go out looking for supplies and miss something like that.”

“You think the Chancellor was holding out on you?” Anya asked.

“I know she was,” Lexa said with a laugh, “she asked Finn to be her inside man, thinking he could get access to what information we have.”

“You’d think she would have asked someone a little smarter.” Anya said with a laugh of her own.

“She did,” Lexa replied, “she asked Monty first, but he turned her down.”

“I like him,” Anya said with a small smile, “he’s super smart, him and Jasper have been trying to find a place to set up some kind of alcohol still or something, been keeping me on my toes.”

“I’m wondering if they’ll be of an assistance if we need it,” Lexa said with a sigh, “if this all goes to hell we might need medical help or something.”

“We could just turn up there and find out.” Anya said with a shrug.

“If we turn up there unannounced we’ll probably be shot,” Lexa said with a laugh, “they hate the military, and Abby hates me more than most.”

“Because you’re corrupting her daughter.” Anya said, a smirk on her lips.

“There’s no corrupting taking place, thank you very much.” Lexa said, shaking her head, “but she does think that if it wasn’t for me then Clarke would have stayed.”

“If it wasn’t for you, Clarke would be dead already,” Anya said, “from what you’ve both said, and from what we could see on the drone camera, she was outnumbered and didn’t have enough ammunition to take out even half of them. You saved her life.”

“Abby isn’t going to see it that way,” Lexa said, “Jake, Clarke’s dad, he can see that side of it, but Abby can’t see past the military thing.”

“That’s her loss.” Anya said with a small shrug, “you’re not that bad.”

“Thanks, asshole.” Lexa replied, “I could radio Raven, see if she can get Clarke to let her mom know that we’re going to be in the area, and see if there’s any chance they’d help if we needed it.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Anya said with a nod, “you can do that in the morning, get some rest, I’ll take over watch for a while.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

After taking Aden to breakfast, and dropping him off with Ontari, Clarke made her way to the control room. Finn was waiting outside the door.

“Something wrong?” Clarke asked.

“You look tired.” He replied.

“It was a long night,” Clarke said, “you waiting out here for something?”

“I was waiting for you,” he said, “I was hoping we could talk.”

“About?” Clarke asked.

“You know what about, Clarke,” he said, stepping closer to her, “what’s going to happen here if Lexa and the others don’t come back? You’re going to get stuck with a kid, we’re all going to end up stuck somewhere with no protection…”

“You’re assuming that everyone who can fire a gun went with Lexa,” Octavia said, walking down the corridor to where Clarke and Finn were standing, “there are still a lot of people here who can keep everyone safe, not that we’re going to need it, because Lexa will be coming back.”

“You seem to have a lot of faith in her,” Finn said, his eyes flicking from Clarke to Octavia, “even Raven seems to trust her, and Raven doesn’t trust anyone.”

“Lexa saved Raven’s life,” Clarke replied, shaking her head, “risking her own in the process. She saved my life too, if it wasn’t for her I’d have died while I was out looking for supplies. I was surrounded by biters, didn’t have enough ammunition, she got me out of there.”

“Doesn’t mean that you owe her anything.” Finn said, looking back at Clarke.

“Actually, it does,” the blonde replied, “means I owe her everything, and even if I didn’t, it wouldn’t change anything, Finn. I’m not involved with Lexa because of what she did, I’m with her because of the person she is.”

“Whatever.” Finn said, shaking his head a little as he walked away from the command room.

“Asshole.” Octavia muttered, “is he ever going to give up?”

“Hopefully.” Clarke said, “Did you sleep okay?”

“Couple of hours,” Octavia replied, “my mind decided it’d be nice for me to imagine Lincoln infected, so yeah, great thing to dream about. Can I ask you something…?”

“Sure.” Clarke said with a nod.

“If he has been infected, do you think they’ll kill him?” Octavia asked, “I mean, when Costia was bitten, Lexa brought her back here…”

“And then Lexa had to watch her die,” Clarke replied, “when we talked about it she told me that she can still remember the screams as she stood with her in the decontamination area. She also told me that she knew she should have shot her, but she couldn’t. Honestly, I don’t think that’s something she wants to have to go through again, watching someone she cares about die like that, so if he is infected, I think it would be kinder for him if they did kill him.”

“I guess.” Octavia said with a sigh, “are you going to see Raven?”

“Yeah,” Clarke said with a nod, “at breakfast she said something about needing to talk to me.”

Clarke opened the door and walked into the command room, Octavia following on behind her.

“You wanted to talk to me?” Clarke said, sitting on one of the chairs at the table.

“Lexa wants to talk to you actually.” Raven said, picking up the radio, “yo, boss lady, you there?”

“Yeah, I’m here,” Lexa said over the radio after a few moments, “is Clarke there?”

Raven handed Clarke the radio.

“Hey.” Clarke said into the radio, “everything okay?”

“Hi, yeah, everything’s okay,” Lexa replied, “is everything okay there? Is Aden okay?”

“Yeah,” Clarke said with a small smile, “he’s okay, he misses you though.”

“I miss him too,” Lexa replied honestly, “the reason I needed to talk to you is, I was checking the map that Raven gave me before we left, and I found out that your people aren’t too far from where we’re going, they’re less than a mile away.”

“They can’t be that close, we would’ve known about them…” Clarke said, her brow furrowed a little, “I’m sure we’d notice a house sticking out of a rock face.”

“Only if you were going around looking up rather than looking where you were going.” Octavia said from where she was sitting at the table.

“Good point,” Clarke said to her, “Which direction are they from where my people are, Lexa?”

“North East,” Lexa replied, “it would explain how easy it has been for them to take your people, they don’t have far to travel. I need you to contact your mom, or your dad, or someone. If this all goes to hell we might need medical assistance, it would be a heck of a lot easier for us to get to your people than it would be to get home.”

“I’ll contact my dad, he can talk to my mom,” Clarke said, “though as she has Finn spying here chances are she will have the radio we left with her. What do you want me to tell her?”

“The truth,” Lexa replied with a sigh, “tell her that we’re out here looking for one of our people who was taken, explain to her that we believe Mount Weather is close by, see if she’ll be open to helping us if we need it.”

“Maybe they could send some people to help you, like armed people.” Clarke said.

“We’re already going to attract attention as it is, I’d rather just have people I trust not to shoot me in the back around me with guns.” Lexa said with a small laugh.

“Point taken,” Clarke said with a laugh of her own, “I’ll contact my mom and get back to you, okay?”

“Okay.” Lexa said, “talk to you soon, Clarke.”

Clarke put the radio down on the table as she sighed.

“You think your mom is likely to agree?” Raven asked.

“Probably,” Clarke replied, “I mean, first and foremost she’s a doctor, I’m hoping she remembers that. I’m just worried about what she’d do once she knows that Mount Weather is closer than they thought, they don’t have the trained people to launch some kind of rescue mission.”

“Cross that bridge if and when we come to it,” Octavia said, “maybe we could work something out together about that, but firstly we need to find out if it is Mount Weather, and you need to talk to your mom about whether she’ll help our people if they need it.”

Clarke nodded and picked the radio up again, turning the radio tuner to the right channel.

“Mom, are you there?” Clarke said into the radio.

“Clarke,” Abby said, the surprise clear in her voice, “are you okay?”

“Yeah, mom, I’m good,” Clarke replied, “when we were on our way back here from a supply run, someone took one of Lexa’s people, they’re out looking for him now. The last location they had on the tracker put him not far from where you are.”

“She has trackers on her people?” Abby asked.

“Government issue watches, they have tracking devices in them,” Clarke explained, hoping that Lexa wouldn’t mind her telling her mom that, she had told her to tell her mother the truth after all, and Clarke couldn’t explain how they knew where Lincoln was without telling her mom about the watches, “the last signal they got from the watch was about a mile to the North East of where you are. On old image maps we could see a building in a rock face, we think it’s Mount Weather…”

“We don’t tend to send people to the North East, there’s too many biters in that area.” Abby said, “that would explain how we didn’t know about it. I’m assuming the number of biters in that area are intentional, to keep everyone else away.”

“I’d guess so,” Clarke replied with a small sigh, “I need to know if you’ll help them, mom.”

“We don’t have enough people to send out on a mission like that, Clarke, I’m…” Abby started to say.

“I didn’t mean help like that, mom, I mean if they need medical help can they come to you?” Clarke asked, “it would be a lot easier for them to get to you than it would be for them to get the injured people back here.”

“They don’t have a doctor with them?” Abby asked.

“They have a couple of guys who are trained army medics,” Clarke said, “but it would still be a lot more helpful if they could come to you.”

“They can come here.” Abby replied, though the tone in her voice told Clarke how unhappy she was about that idea.

“Thank you, they might not need to, depending how it goes.” Clarke said, with a small sigh of relief, “I’ll let Lexa know, she’ll probably radio you before they get to you if they need your help.”

“Okay sweetie.” Abby said.

“Talk to you soon, mom.” Clarke said.

“I love you.” Abby said.

“Love you too.” Clarke replied, before putting quickly changing the radio frequency again so she could talk to Lexa, “Lexa, you there?”

“I’m here, Clarke.” Lexa replied, “did you talk to your mom?”

“I did,” Clarke said, nodding a little, though she knew that Lexa couldn’t see her, “she said that if you need to, you can go there. I told her that you’d radio her before you got there if you need to go there.”

“Okay, thank you.” Lexa said, “I’m hoping we won’t need to, but we have no idea what’s going to happen when we find Lincoln.”

“Be safe.” Clarke said.

“I’ll be as safe as I can be.” Lexa replied, Clarke could hear the small smile in her voice, “hopefully we’ll be back home in a couple of days. I’ll radio you when we know more about what’s going on with Lincoln.”

“Okay,” Clarke said, “talk to you soon.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

As Lexa put the radio back in the holder that was on the dash, Anya looked at her from the passenger seat.

“You are so whipped.” She said, shaking her head a little.

“Shut up.” Lexa replied, as she started the truck and headed off in the direction of the last signal they had received from Lincoln’s watch.

 

x-x-x-x

 

The closer they got to what they assumed was Mount Weather, the more bodies they saw laying along the side of the road.

“What the hell…” Anya said, as she looked out of the window.

“Infected?” Lexa asked, glancing over at her.

“Not all of them,” Anya replied, “though from what I can see they’ve all been bitten, some have limbs missing, looks like they were torn off.”

“Well that’s pleasant.” Lexa said with a sigh, shaking her head a little, she could see the building built into the rock face in the distance so stopped the car and took out her binoculars, “let’s see what we have here…”

Using the zoom on the binoculars, Lexa could see where the service road disappeared into the mountain. She was surprised not to see anyone guarding the entrance, though she figured that they probably thought nobody would be stupid enough to go there. She could see two cameras, one on either side of the entrance, both pointing towards the road itself.

“We’re going to need to get closer.” Lexa said with a sigh as she handed the binoculars to Anya, “if we head off to the left we can park the vehicles behind the bushes over there…”

Anya nodded as she looked in the direction that Lexa had pointed.

“We can leave Indra and one of the others with the vehicles and we’ll go the rest of the way on foot.” Lexa said as she started to drive the truck over to where they could safely park them where they wouldn’t be seen too easily.

Once everyone was parked they all gathered around the back of the truck that Lexa had been driving.

“Okay,” Lexa said as she looked around the group, “they don’t have anyone out guarding the entrance, but they do have two cameras pointing at the road, we need to get closer to see what’s going on. Indra, I need you to stay here with the vehicles, radio me if you see anything, okay?”

Indra nodded a little.

“The rest of you, with me.” Lexa said, “we’re going to go directly towards the side of the mountain from here, and move up the side towards the entrance.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

As they neared the entrance of the mountain, Lexa held her hand up to stop everyone who was moving behind her. She could see someone running, with a limp, from the tunnel entrance. She grabbed the binoculars she had around her neck and looked to see who it was.

“Lincoln…” she said with a sigh.

She could see that he was bleeding as he ran, he had a cut to his left thigh and his arms. His shirt was torn and there was blood on the back of it, Lexa assumed he’d been cut on his back as well. One thing that she couldn’t tell was whether he had been bitten or not.

Lexa looked at the soldier who was just behind Anya.

“Go back and get my truck,” she said, “bring it back here, we’re going to need it.”

The soldier nodded before he ran back in the direction they had come from.

“Let’s move.” Lexa said.

“Wait.” Anya said, stopping Lexa, “what are we going to do if he’s been bitten?”

“The only thing we can do,” Lexa replied, her jaw clenched, “end his suffering and take him home, give him a proper send off.”

Anya nodded a little before she followed Lexa.

As they got closer to where Lincoln was, they could see a group of infected emerge from the Mountain.

“They’re hunting him.” Lexa said as she crouched down near the mountain side.

“Do you think that’s why they take people?” Anya asked, “to use them as training for the hostiles?”

“No idea,” Lexa replied with a sigh, “we’ll see what Lincoln can tell us when we get to him.”

Lexa signalled to the group to shoot the hostiles, as soon as the gunshots started to ring out Lincoln turned in their direction, once he had figured they weren’t shooting at him he started to make his way over to them. Lexa’s group continued to take out the hostiles, before Lexa herself realised that another small group had exited the mountain, 5 armed men in fatigues. She dropped to the ground quickly as a bullet whizzed over her head, before she returned fire.

Lincoln stumbled and fell to the ground before he could reach them, causing both Lexa and Anya to rush out to him, getting covering fire from the soldiers who were still using the bushes as cover.

“Lincoln,” Lexa said, as she crouched next to him, “have you been bitten?”

“No…” Lincoln said, shaking his head, “they tried to get information from me about how to get past the fence, when I didn’t tell them they cut me, made me bleed… there are other people in there, Lex, we need to help them.”

“Right now we need to help you.” Lexa replied as she and Anya helped him up, each of them putting an arm around his waist to support his weight as they part carried, part dragged him over to the little cover offered by the bushes.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Lexa sat in the chair next to Lincoln’s bed in the large room that doubled as an infirmary at the compound which Clarke’s people called home. After the shoot out a few other members of Lexa’s group had needed patching up, but there were no serious injuries. Abby had been a little sceptical of allowing them in with Lincoln, the blood that covered his clothes and any visible flesh could have been covering up any bites he may have had, but eventually she had conceded when Lexa said that if he had been bitten, she would shoot him herself.

Once Abby and her assistant, a guy called Jackson, had got Lincoln cleaned up they could see there were no bites, so they had got to work helping him with the injuries that he had. Abby had used some of the limited anaesthetic they had to knock him out, when she had said how little they had left Lexa had made a mental note to see what medical supplies they had to spare at the facility. While Abby and Jackson were working on Lincoln, Lexa had radioed the facility, letting Octavia know they had found him and telling her what was going on.

Lexa’s attention was snapped from Lincoln’s unconscious form when the door opened, she looked over to see Jake walk in.

“Can I come in?” he asked.

Lexa nodded so he walked into the room and closed the door behind him.

“How is he?” Jake asked as he walked closer to where Lexa was sitting, getting a chair from next to an empty nearby bed and moving it over to where the brunette was, before he sat down next to her.

“No idea,” Lexa replied with a sigh, “Abby said he lost a lot of blood, but he should be okay.”

“That’s good,” Jake said with a nod, “is everything at your facility okay?”

“Clarke’s fine.” Lexa said, a small smile playing on her lips as she looked at Jake, “that is what you meant, right?”

“Guilty,” Jake said with a smile of his own, “and everyone else?”

“Monty and Jasper are keeping Anya on her toes,” Lexa said, “Murphy seems to be fitting in pretty well, I’ve had no trouble from anyone, though Finn is fast becoming a pain in my ass.”

“What do you mean?” Jake asked, his brow furrowed slightly.

“Eight of us went out on a supply run, me, Clarke, Octavia, Lincoln, Bellamy, Finn, Murphy and one of my people, Emori,” Lexa said, “I told everyone to stay in pairs, Finn decided to ignore that and go to check out a pharmacy without Bellamy. There was a hostile inside, he nearly got bitten.”

“He’s not really a fan of authority.” Jake replied.

“He’s not really a fan of mine,” Lexa said, correcting him, “I don’t think it’s the authority thing that’s the problem, he just doesn’t like doing what I tell him to do, I mean he has no issue snooping around my facility because Abby asked him to.”

The look on Jake’s face let Lexa know that he knew about that. She rolled her eyes and shook her head a little.

“If you wanted to know anything, you could have just asked me,” Lexa said with a sigh, “I would have helped in any way that I could.”

“How did you know?” Jake asked.

“He’s not the brightest idiot in the world,” Lexa replied, “plus Clarke overheard you talking about it the last time we were here. She wasn’t sure it was Finn at first, but it didn’t take long to figure out it was him. So, that was the first hint, and Monty pretty much confirmed it when he said that Abby had asked him to do it, but he said no.”

“Marcus and I wanted to just ask you, but my wife really doesn’t trust the military.” Jake said with a sigh, “I’m sorry, Lexa.”

Before Lexa could say anything, Lincoln started to wake up.

“Hey.” Lexa said to him, a small smile on her lips, as she got him a glass of water and helped him take a drink, “how you feeling?”

“I’m okay,” Lincoln said, pushing himself up so he was sitting up a little, “where are we?”

“With Clarke’s people,” Lexa said, as she put the glass of water back on the table next to the bed, “I figured we might need medical assistance, so already cleared it so we could come here. Clarke’s mom fixed you up.”

Lincoln nodded a little, his eyes flicking between Lexa and Jake.

“I’ll let Abby know you’re awake.” Jake said with a small smile before he stood up and walked from the room.

“I know that your mind is probably all kinds of fluffy right now, but can you tell me anything about what you saw in there?” Lexa asked once she and Lincoln were alone.

“I didn’t see much,” Lincoln said, “I was kept locked in a room, strapped up to a bed. When they did take me out of that room, I was taken to another room where there were a few cells… I heard some people saying that they were manipulating the virus, infecting people on purpose.”

“Why didn’t they do that with you?” Lexa asked.

“No idea,” Lincoln replied with a sigh, “they wanted information out of me, I didn’t tell them anything though. They wanted to know how many people we have, what kind of weapons we have, technology, that kind of thing. When I didn’t tell them anything they tried making me. Then they figured out that wasn’t going to work, I guess my usefulness ran out. They sliced me up, took me to the main entrance and told me to run.”

“That’s when we found you.” Lexa said with a nod.

“How long are we going to be here?” Lincoln asked, “I get a bad feeling about this place.”

“As soon as Abby says we can move you, we can leave.” Lexa said with a soft smile.

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abby notices some anomalies in Lincoln's blood, Lexa, Anya and Indra decide to take him home. Abby realises that maybe she does need Lexa's help, but is Lexa willing to give her it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As requested on Tumblr, here's the next update of this. If you're reading this and liking it (or reading it and hating it) please drop me a comment and let me know, it always makes the writing easier.

 

Lexa had fallen asleep on the chair next to the bed Lincoln was currently occupying, her head resting on the bed next to her sleeping friend. She hadn’t realized just how tired she was, but it hadn’t been long after Abby left the previous night that she had let herself get some rest.

She was woken with a start as she felt someone’s hand on her shoulder, catching her breath as she sat up and saw Abby standing next to her with what appeared to be an almost apologetic look on her face.

“Sorry for waking you.” Abby said.

“Is everything okay?” Lexa asked as she stretched, her body really not thanking her for falling asleep the way she had.

“I don’t know,” Abby replied honestly, “as you know we took some blood from Lincoln when we were fixing him up…”

Lexa furrowed her brow and nodded slightly, letting the older woman know she could continue.

“We found something in his blood that isn’t supposed to be there.” Abby continued, “his blood shows signs of him being infected, we didn’t find any bite marks when we were stitching him up, but it’s definitely there in his blood.”

“He mentioned that while he was there he heard people talking about them manipulating the virus, infecting people on purpose, but he didn’t say that they’d done that to him…” Lexa said, letting out a sigh as she looked at Lincoln, “he isn’t showing any outward signs of being infected, in my experience it doesn’t usually take that long for the signs to show.”

“That’s the really interesting thing,” Abby said, resting her hand on Lexa’s shoulder, which caused the brunette to look back at her, “his body seems to be fighting it.”

“How is that even possible?” Lexa asked, glancing at Abby before she looked back at Lincoln.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Abby replied, “but as a doctor I know that through-out history, whenever there has been an outbreak of a virus, some people seem to build up an immunity to it. Nobody has ever really been able to explain it but we know it happens. Some believe it has something to do with how often someone is exposed, whether that be to the virus itself or to someone infected with the virus. It actually helps when trying to come up with a vaccine or cure…”

“You think it’s possible to find a cure for this thing?” Lexa asked, looking back at Abby.

“I hope so,” Abby said, “I refuse to believe that this is the way humanity is going to end.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

“So, he has it in his blood?” Anya asked as she, Lexa and Indra stood on the walkway of the huge fence which surrounded the compound.

“That’s what Abby said,” Lexa replied with a nod, “I’ve been keeping an eye on him, making sure that he doesn’t suddenly start thinking that eating people is a good idea, but he isn’t showing any outward signs of being infected. I mean, with others that I’ve seen it starts with the skin losing colour, the eyes going dull, stuff like that, but Lincoln just looks like Lincoln.”

“What are we going to do?” Anya asked, “Are we going to take him back with us? Risk it?”

“Abby said his body is fighting it,” Lexa said with a sigh, “we can’t just leave him here, we can’t abandon him. I told Abby that if he is infected, if he starts to… switch… I’ll shoot him myself. But I can’t help think that if that was going to happen, it would’ve happened already.”

“I agree.” Indra said with a nod, causing both Anya and Lexa to look at her, “we have seen how fast the virus takes hold of someone, Lincoln would already be dead if that were the case.”

“Does he know?” Anya asked as she looked back at Lexa.

“Yeah,” Lexa replied with a small nod, “I thought we should tell him. He said that other than feeling tired and in pain from the mess that they made of his body, he’s feeling okay. He promised me that the minute he doesn’t, he’ll let me know, he said he’d even load the gun for me.”

“So we take him home.” Anya said with a nod.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Later that evening, after the sun had set, Lexa found herself back on the walkway of the wall. Throughout the day she had found herself wanting nothing more than to get back home, she was missing Aden. She was missing Clarke. She remembered back to a conversation she’d had with the blonde about stargazing, as she looked up at the clear night sky she found herself thinking about just what could be out there.

“When some people look up at the stars, they see nothing but spheres of rock and gases,” Jake said, walking up next to Lexa, “you can tell a lot about someone by what they think about when they look at the stars. What do you see when you look at the stars, Lexa?”

“Endless possibilities.” Lexa replied honestly, “Clarke told me that you two used to go stargazing.”

“We did,” Jake said with a small smile and a nod, “I’ve lost count of the amount of times Abby lost it when I’d wake Clarke up at 2 in the morning so we could watch a meteor shower.”

Lexa laughed at the mental picture in her mind.

“Talking of kids,” Jake said, causing Lexa to look at him, a questioning look in her eyes, “tell me about Aden. You mentioned that he was kind of your kid, how did that come about?”

“His mom was a medic, placed at the facility with my unit,” Lexa replied with a small sigh, looking back out at the night sky, “we were out looking for survivors, we had 12 people in three vehicles. Only two of us made it back to the facility, me and Costia, Aden’s mom. She was infected, she’d been bitten, I _knew_ that. But I couldn’t leave her out there, I couldn’t do it… the last thing she said to me was ‘take care of Aden’, so I have, I do. Well I do the best I can, anyway, sometimes I can’t help but think it’s not enough.”

“You sound like a real parent to me,” Jake said with a small smile, “that’s all any of us do, the best we can.”

“You and Abby did a pretty good job.” Lexa said, a smile tugging at her lips as she looked at Jake.

“I like to think so.” Jake said with a wink, causing Lexa to laugh, “it doesn’t get any easier, you know, the older they get. I mean, Clarke’s an adult now, doesn’t mean I worry about her any less. But she’s a smart kid, she knows what’s best for her, she knows where she wants to be and who she wants to be with…”

“Jake…” Lexa said, furrowing her brow a little.

“Just answer me one question, Lexa, just one.” He said, causing Lexa to nod a little, “Do you care about her?”

“I do,” Lexa replied honestly with a nod, “I know that I haven’t known her for that long, and in normal circumstances things would probably be playing out very differently, but… she means a lot to me.”

“That’s all I needed to know.” Jake said with a soft smile, before he turned and walked away towards the ladder of the walkway, leaving Lexa alone again with her thoughts.

While Lexa was getting lost in her thoughts, the radio she had with her crackled to life.

“Lexa…” Clarke said, over the radio.

“Hey…” Lexa replied, a small smile playing on her lips, “is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Clarke said, “everything’s okay. I was just… when are coming home, I… I miss you.”

“I miss you too,” Lexa said with a sigh, “we should be heading home tomorrow, I think. We had to decide what to do with Lincoln.”

“What do you mean?” Clarke asked, “is he okay?”

“His blood shows signs of the virus, though his body doesn’t,” Lexa replied, “your mom said his body is actually fighting it, which apparently is a good thing, makes her think that a vaccine or cure may be possible. We just needed to figure out what the best thing to do was.”

“And what did you decide?” the blonde asked.

“We’re bringing him home.” Lexa said.

 

x-x-x-x

 

It took another two days before Lexa, Anya, Lincoln and the others arrived back at the facility. The sun had set by the time they arrived back, but that didn’t stop Octavia, Clarke and Raven meeting them when they got there. As soon as Lexa was out of the car, Clarke pulled her into a hug. Lexa felt all the tension and worry that she’d had over the previous few days melt away as she wrapped her arms around the blonde.

“Are you okay?” Clarke asked as she backed out of the hug a little.

“I am now.” Lexa replied with a small smile as she softly brushed a strand of hair from the blonde’s face, “what about you, are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Clarke said with a nod, “I’m okay.”

“You two will have plenty of time to catch up later,” Raven said as she walked past them towards the door, “right now we’ve got a lot to talk about.”

Lexa furrowed her brow a little as she looked at Raven, before looking back at Clarke.

“What happened?” Lexa asked.

“Well, it’s funny you should ask…” Clarke said.

“Clarke…” Lexa said.

“Finn is in the medical area.” Clarke replied.

“What did he do?” Lexa asked with a sigh.

“We had the kids outside, and he was sitting up on the roof,” Clarke said, “he… er… slipped. Managed to shoot himself in the foot on the way down.”

Lexa couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped her as she rolled her eyes and shook her head a little.

“What a fucking idiot.” She said.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Lexa was woken up by someone knocking on her door, as she opened her eyes it took her a few moments to remember where she was, but everything soon became very clear when she glanced down and saw Clarke asleep cuddled up to her. A small smile played on her lips as she looked at the sleeping blonde, her legs tucked under her on the sofa. They had been talking about everything that happened, both drifting off to sleep.

“You two are just too cute,” Raven said from the open door, “kinda makes me wanna vomit if I’m being honest.”

Lexa looked over at Raven to see a small smile on the girl’s lips.

“What can I do for you, Raven?” she asked.

“Chancellor Griffin wants to talk to you.” Raven said, “I would’ve radioed you but I didn’t want to interrupt your catch-up time with sleeping beauty there.”

“Did she say what she wanted?” Lexa asked, moving slowly from where she was sitting so she didn’t wake Clarke, laying the blonde on the sofa before placing a blanket over her.

“Just said she wanted to talk to you,” Raven replied with a small shrug, “said it was important.”

“Isn’t it always.” Lexa said with a sigh, walking from the room.

When they reached the control room Lexa walked over to the radio and sat down on one of the chairs, noticing that Anya was asleep with her head on the table in the center of the room. Lexa furrowed her brow a little, looking at Raven with a questioning look in her eyes, to which Raven just shrugged and sat back down in her own chair.

“Chancellor Griffin?” Lexa said into the radio.

“Thank you for talking to me, Lexa,” Abby said, “I hope I didn’t wake you up.”

“It’s fine,” Lexa replied, “Raven said you said it was important.”

“Yes,” Abby said, “a few of our people went out on a supply run and haven’t come back…”

Lexa sighed, closed her eyes and rested her head back against the chair.

“I understand that you’ve just got back…” Abby started to say.

“Yes, I have,” Lexa replied with another sigh, “and I honestly wasn’t planning on leaving again for a while.”

“I understand,” Abby said, “you have responsibilities there.”

“Yes, I do,” Lexa said, “there’s one thing that _I_ don’t understand, when we first met it was pretty clear that you wanted nothing to do with us, but now that more of your people have gone missing you suddenly want my help?”

“We don’t have people trained for a rescue mission,” Abby replied, “we seem to be losing more and more people every week and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”

“You could’ve asked for help earlier…” Raven muttered to herself.

“It sounds to me like you have a choice to make, Chancellor,” Lexa said, “if you want my help you’re going to have to work with me, not fight against me. The first thing you need to do is tell your spy that he needs to stop, though he isn’t really doing a good job anyway…”

“You know about that?” Abby asked, sounding surprised.

“To be honest with you, my kid could do a better job than Finn has been doing.” Lexa said, causing Raven to laugh, “You’re going to have to move your people here, we can give them the basic training they would need, and when that is done we will go and rescue your people together.”

“We can’t…” Abby started to say.

“Those are my terms, Chancellor,” Lexa said, interrupting her, “I can’t risk any more lives without you cooperating with me. We have to work together on this, or it isn’t happening.”

“Okay,” Abby said with a sigh, “okay…”

 

x-x-x-x

 

After talking to Abby and figuring out a plan of action to get what was left of Clarke’s people to the facility, Lexa made her way to the medical area. It was quiet, as she expected it to be. Lincoln was asleep, Octavia cuddled up on the small bed next to him, the sight caused Lexa to smile a little. She then looked over at the bed where Finn was, narrowing her eyes a little as she walked over and kicked the frame, causing him to jump as he woke up.

“What the fuck…” he said, looking around, sighing as he saw Lexa, “what do you want?”

“I just talked to Abby,” Lexa said, pulling a chair up next to the bed, before sitting down, “the rest of your people will be brought here in a few days.”

“What’s that got to do with me?” Finn asked.

“It means that you need to stop your little snooping around thing that you’re doing,” Lexa said, arching her eyebrow a little, “you might think you’ve been subtle, but you haven’t.”

“You knew about that?” Finn asked, letting out a sigh as Lexa nodded slowly, “I didn’t really find anything out anyway…”

“I know,” Lexa said, “we knew what you were doing before you even set foot down here, Clarke heard her mom talking about it before we left. It didn’t take much for her to figure out it was you.”

“And still you let me stay,” he said, his brow furrowed a little, “why?”

“I’ve been asking myself that question every day since you got here, because you have been nothing but a major pain in my ass,” Lexa replied, “but for some reason Clarke wanted me to give you a chance, she thought that you might change your mind about spying for Abby once you’d spent some time here.”

A smirk started to pull at Finn’s lips.

“So, she wanted me here…” he said.

“Listen to me,” Lexa said, standing up and leaning closer to Finn, “she isn’t interested in being anything more than your friend, if it were up to me, you wouldn’t even get that. If you can’t deal with just being her friend, then I suggest you figure out a way to stay away from her, because if I find that you’ve tried anything or you hurt her in anyway… let me put it this way, you’d wish I’d just thrown your ass over the fence.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke's people arrive at the facility, Lexa has to do something that she really doesn't want to do, and Aden is a cutie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured I would update this. Don't forget to drop me a comment, let me know what you think. Also if there's anything you really want to see (other than Finn getting bitten or getting his ass kicked by Lexa) then let me know and I'll see if I can work it into the story. Enjoy :)

 

The day that Lexa was dreading had arrived; Clarke’s people would be coming to the facility, part of her wanted to run and hide because she knew that the next few days were not going to be easy. She was expecting it to be a struggle, she was expecting Abby and a few of the others to fight her on things, partly because they weren’t used to having someone else telling them what to do, and partly because Lexa was military and they didn’t like that. Lexa had actually put a lot of thought into whether or not she was still military, can you still be part of something that you’re not sure still exists. She was pretty sure that Abby would fight her on things simply because Lexa wasn’t that much older than Clarke, and she was sure Abby would take issue with someone as close in age to her own daughter telling her what to do.

Rooms had been arranged for the arriving people, there was a section of the facility that was set up for bedrooms that hadn’t been used because there was no need for it, and Lexa had set aside that section for Clarke’s people. She had thought long and hard about it first, knowing that them being separate from the rest of the facility’s sleeping areas might cause issues, knowing that it might bring about a sense of segregation, which is what she didn’t want. But unless she started moving people around, she wasn’t going to be able to stop it, and she really didn’t want to start moving people as the people who had been there since day one were settled as they were.

Lexa hadn’t gone with Anya and a few of the others to collect Clarke’s people, she couldn’t justify leaving Aden again so soon after getting back, Clarke had also decided to stay behind which had surprised Lexa a lot. While they had been getting the new rooms ready, Lexa had asked Clarke if she wanted to move rooms to be near her people, the blonde had looked at her like she was completely insane.

Lexa was standing with Clarke and Clarke’s parents above ground as Clarke’s people all got out of the vehicles that had brought them to the facility. They were being taken downstairs in groups of 10, a manageable number. As the numbers went down, Anya got Lexa’s attention.

“What’s up?” the brunette asked as she walked over to where Anya was standing.

“I don’t mean to raise any alarms or anything,” Anya said, “but while I was driving the bus I could hear someone coughing. It might just be a cold…”

“But it might not be.” Lexa replied with a sigh, “who?”

Anya motioned to one of the people who had just got off the bus. Lexa could see that the person in question looked pale and clammy, which was never a good sign. Lexa walked over to where Abby was standing with Jake and Clarke.

“How long has that person been sick?” Lexa asked, interrupting whatever conversation the Griffins had been having.

“Which person?” Abby asked, causing Lexa to point out the person she had seen getting off the bus, “He were perfectly fine when we left.”

“Well he’s not fine now.” Lexa replied.

“I can run some tests…” Abby said.

“If he’s infected, he won’t get past the decontamination area.” Lexa said with a sigh, “there’s a chemical that is released into the air, it soaks through the skin… it reacts to the infection. Death is pretty quick, but very painful. I need to know if he’s infected before we get downstairs.”

Abby nodded and walked over to the guy who was sick, walking them over to the side of the building where she could ask them questions and check them for any obvious injuries.

“I’m pretty sure he’s one of the only people who survived the last supply run.” Jake said, “he didn’t really talk about what happened…”

“Didn’t Lincoln mention that Mount Weather were manipulating the virus, injecting it into people?” Clarke asked as she looked at Lexa, who nodded in reply, “what if that’s what happened here?”

“He came back three days ago,” Jake said, looking between the two, “why would he be getting sick now?”

“Like Clarke said, they’re manipulating the virus,” Lexa replied, “maybe they’ve come up with a way for its effects to be delayed. Obviously, they would know that he would be given a check when he got back, to look for any bites or other obvious signs of infection. When none were found, he’d be allowed to go back to his normal everyday life. Getting sick after a few days, taking everyone by surprise…”

Abby walked back over to where they were standing.

“He’s getting worse,” Abby said with a sigh, “quickly. He has no obvious signs of bites, but there does appear to be a pinprick on his arm, I missed it in the initial examination because I wasn’t looking for it.”

“Get everyone downstairs.” Lexa said, glancing at Clarke before she pulled her handgun from its holster, “make sure they know which rooms they’re staying in, get them something to eat.”

“What are you going do?” Abby asked.

“What I need to do to protect my people.” Lexa replied.

Lexa stood and watched as the rest of Clarke’s people made it through the door and towards the stairs.

“Lexa…” Clarke said, walking over to the brunette.

“I need you to go downstairs,” Lexa said, “you don’t need to see this.”

Clarke nodded a little, glancing over at where the man was still sitting by the wall of the building now shivering as if it was the dead of winter, before she walked into the building and closed the door.

Lexa took a deep breath, steadying herself before she walked over to where the man was sitting. As he looked up at her she could see his eyes starting to cloud over, the colour starting to drain from his iris’s.

“I’m sorry.” Lexa said to him.

“Do it…” the man replied, obviously aware of what was happening.

Lexa raised her gun, pointing it at the man’s head, she closed her eyes and pulled the trigger. As the man’s body slumped to the side and hit the dirt, Lexa opened her eyes again, struggling to swallow down the sick feeling that was building in her stomach. Sure, she was a soldier, and this hadn’t been the first time she had taken a human life, but this was different. It was different in so many ways. This wasn’t someone wanting to attack her, or kill her, this wasn’t someone fighting her. Lexa had tried so hard not to let what was happening in the world turn her into a monster. Even when she was firing her gun towards the people from Mount Weather who were with the hostiles she would always aim for an injury shot rather than a kill shot.

She walked into the building and over to the large wooden box that sat underneath the window, opening it up she pulled out the shovel and went back outside. Raven hadn’t closed the gates so Lexa walked outside of the fence and started to dig a hole.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Two hours had passed and Lexa still hadn’t come back downstairs, Clarke was obviously worried, but Raven told her there was nothing to worry about, Lexa’s wrist watch was still showing as a red flashing dot above the facility, so she hadn’t gone anywhere and she was still alive. Once Clarke was sure that her people all knew which rooms they were staying in, and most of them had had something to eat, she went back upstairs. From the doorway of the building she could see Lexa sitting just outside the fence next to a mound of freshly dug earth, it was pretty obvious that she had just buried the man she had shot.

Clarke walked over to where Lexa was sitting, the brunette was sitting with her arms resting on her legs, just looking at the grave.

“Hey…” Clarke said, softly putting her hand on Lexa’s shoulder, causing the brunette to look at her before she looked back at the mound of earth.

“I buried him,” Lexa said with a sigh, “I couldn’t leave him like that…”

“You could’ve asked for some help.” Clarke said as she stood next to Lexa.

“No,” Lexa said shaking her head, “I shot him, it was my responsibility.”

“Are you going to come back downstairs,” Clarke said, “you missed lunch.”

“Not hungry.” Lexa replied.

“Okay,” Clarke said, “well I think my mom has some questions.”

Lexa nodded a little and stood up, she still couldn’t take her eyes off the grave.

“Hey…” Clarke said, moving forward to hug the brunette.

Lexa shook her head and stepped away from the blonde.

“I need a shower.” Lexa said, before turning and walking back into the building, leaving the shovel leaning up against the door.

 

x-x-x-x

 

After Lexa got a shower, she was making her way towards the control room where she knew Clarke would be waiting with her parents, and probably a few other people.

“So, you’re just going around shooting people now?” Finn asked, causing her to stop walking.

“He was sick, Finn.” She replied, not looking back at him.

“Well let’s hope no one down here gets a cold, or sneezes or something,” Finn said, “you might just have to shoot them too.”

Lexa didn’t bother replying this time, she just continued the walk to the control room. As she walked in she saw Clarke sitting with her dad, talking about something while they looked at a map on the table, Abby was talking to someone who Lexa had seen her talking to before but she didn’t know the name of, and Raven and Monty were messing around with something on one of the computers.

“You had questions.” Lexa said, looking at Abby.

“I do,” Abby replied with a nod, “you mentioned that bringing my people here was going to make it easier to give them some kind of training that would be needed to get the rest of our people out of Mount Weather. When is that likely to start?”

“Probably tomorrow,” Lexa said, “I’m going to need a list of everyone that you want involved in this training. I do have a few stipulations though, the main one being that nobody under the age of 18 can take part.”

“But…” Abby started to say.

“I’m not training children to go and die, Chancellor.” Lexa replied coldly.

The coldness in Lexa’s voice caused Clarke to look up from the map that she was looking at with her father, her eyes fixing on Lexa instead.

“There is no guarantee that we’re going to be successful,” Lexa continued, “and I am not risking the lives of children. Another of my stipulations would be that nobody with young children should take part either…”

Abby opened her mouth to say something, but Lexa raised her hand slightly, stopping Abby from speaking.

“But I know that’s not going to happen,” the brunette said with a sigh, “so what I will say is think carefully about who you put forward, make sure they understand the risks. Is there anything else?”

“Not at the moment.” Abby replied.

“Okay,” Lexa said with a nod, “if you need to speak to me, I shouldn’t be that difficult to find, or you can come here and Raven or someone else who is on duty will radio me and let me know that you want to talk to me.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

Later that night Clarke was in her room with Raven, Octavia, Bellamy, Monty and Jasper. She hadn’t seen Lexa since the brunette had talked to her mother, when she checked Lexa’s room it was empty, no sign of Lexa or Aden. At dinner Lexa had been a no show, Anya making sure that Aden got something to eat. When Clarke had asked when Lexa was, Anya had told her that the Commander wasn’t hungry. After dinner, when Clarke had gone back to her room she noticed that Lexa’s door was closed. She knew that Lexa never closed her door before midnight, so there had to be some good reason that it was closed. She knew that it meant that Lexa needed space, so instead of pushing, she decided to give the brunette what she so obviously needed.

While Clarke was watching a movie with her friends, while talking about what was going to happen when they went out to Mount Weather, there was a knock at the door. Bellamy got up and answered it.

“Clarke,” he said, looking back at the blonde from the doorway, “Aden’s here.”

Clarke furrowed her brow and walked over to the door, obviously very surprised that Aden was standing at her door when he should have been asleep in bed.

“Hey buddy,” she said, crouching down in front of him as Bellamy went back into the room, “what’s the matter?”

“Can I talk to you?” he asked, pulling at the bottom of his pajama top rather than looking at Clarke.

“Of course you can,” Clarke said, “why don’t we go to my bedroom, leave these idiots watching the movie, would that be okay?”

Aden nodded and took hold of Clarke’s hand. The blonde lead him through the room to her bedroom, before picking him up and sitting him on the bed.

“So, what did you want to talk to me about?” Clarke asked with a soft smile as she looked at the young boy.

“I think Lexa’s sad.” Aden said, his brow furrowed as he looked down at his hands.

“I think so too,” Clarke replied with a sigh, “one of the people who arrived today was sick, and Lexa had to do something that she didn’t want to do. I think it’s made her really sad. Does she know you’re here?”

“No,” Aden said, shaking his head a little, “she put my music on, tucked me into bed, then kissed me goodnight and went to her own bedroom. She forgot to turn my light on, she never forgets to turn my light on.”

“Okay, what do you say I come with you and put your light on for you,” Clarke said, “would that be okay?”

“Can you check on Lexa too?” he asked.

“Of course I can.” Clarke said with a nod.

 

x-x-x-x

 

After putting Aden back to bed, and turning on his star light, Clarke went to Lexa’s bedroom. The door was open slightly, but the room was dark. She opened the door, the light from the main room illuminating Lexa’s form on the bed. She was turned away from the door, her legs pulled up. Clarke sighed as she walked into the room, closing the door a little, before climbing on the bed behind the brunette. Lexa, who wasn’t asleep, turned her head and looked at the blonde, a confused look on her face.

“Aden came and got me,” Clarke said as she lay down, putting her arm around Lexa’s waist, “told me you were sad, and you forgot to put his light on.”

“Shit…” Lexa said, as she moved to stand up.

“It’s fine,” Clarke said, “he’s back in bed now, and I put his light on. Do you want to tell me what’s going on with you?”

Lexa sighed as she lay back down on the bed, this time on her back as she looked up at the ceiling. Clarke moved her arm so it was back across Lexa’s waist again.

“I didn’t want to have to shoot him…” Lexa said quietly, her jaw clenched, “humans are being killed fast enough without us doing it…”

“What you did was merciful, Lex,” Clarke said, “you said it yourself, death in the decontamination area is painful, you helped him.”

“I shot him.” Lexa said, shaking her head a little.

“You saved him a lot of pain.” The blonde replied.

Lexa didn’t say anything, she just turned onto her side so she was facing the blonde.

“Can you stay?” she asked quietly.

“There’s nowhere else I’d want to be.” Clarke said, softly kissing Lexa’s head as the brunette cuddled up to her.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things really start to heat up between Clarke and Lexa. Lexa finally has enough of Finn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoy this chapter, drop me a comment, let me know.

 

A few days after Clarke’s people had arrived at the facility, Lexa, Anya and a few others had started to make progress, giving them the basics for the training they would need when they made their move on Mount Weather. There were minor disagreements, but that was nothing new, there were minor disagreements at the facility before Clarke’s people turned up. After another long day, Lexa had managed to convince Anya that maybe they all needed to just relax and let their hair down. This had led to Anya agreeing that Monty and Jasper could break out some of their moonshine, which they had managed to brew behind her back, though she had no idea how.

While those who wanted to drink, and be merry, did so in the mess hall, not everyone was pressured into joining in. Clarke and Lexa stayed in Lexa’s room with Aden, the three of them watching a movie before the blonde and the brunette put Aden to bed and talked on the sofa. Anya was staying sober and dealing with any problems that may arise in the mess hall, which left Lexa free to focus on other things, namely Aden and Clarke.

As the night wore on, Lexa and Clarke ended up in Lexa’s bedroom. Both laying there on the bed, facing each other, though no words were spoken.

“What are you thinking about?” Clarke asked.

“You.” Lexa replied honestly.

“Oh yeah,” Clarke said, Lexa humming her agreement, “what about me?”

“Many things,” Lexa said, a small smirk tugging at her lips, “like how, when I saved your ass that day at the pharmacy, I never expected for a second that we’d end up here.”

“I got the feeling you didn’t like me too much that day.” Clarke said with a soft laugh.

“I thought you were stupid being out there on your own, with one clip of ammunition,” Lexa agreed, “I also thought how it would be a shame to the continuation of the human race if anything happened to you…”

“Smooth, Lex,” Clarke said, moving closer to Lexa, finishing her sentence before kissing her softly, “real smooth.”

As the kiss continued, Clarke brought her hand up from where it was resting between them, and softly cradled Lexa’s cheek. The brunette’s hand went to Clarke’s waist as she closed the remaining distance between their bodies. Clarke sighed into the kiss as she felt Lexa’s body against hers, moving slightly so she could pull Lexa on top of her as the brunette deepened the kiss.

Their tongues continued to dance across one another as Clarke’s hand travelled down Lexa’s back, reaching Lexa’s backside as she pulled her closer. The blonde’s breath hitched in her throat as Lexa slipped her thigh between her legs, rolling her hips slightly and putting pressure against Clarke’s core. The kiss got even more heated as Clarke tugged at the bottom of the t-shirt Lexa was wearing, their lips breaking apart as Lexa sat up and pulled the offending item off over her head. Clarke’s hands immediately travelled to Lexa’s toned stomach once the shirt was off, her fingers trailing down the brunette’s abs.

“Something got you distracted, Clarke?” Lexa asked, a smirk on her lips and amusement clear in her voice as she looked at the blonde.

Clarke looked up at Lexa as she continued to trail her fingers down her abs, the brunette biting her lower lip slightly before she lowered herself back down and recaptured Clarke’s lips with her own. The kiss started to get heated again as Lexa once again put extra pressure against Clarke’s core, the blonde moaning into her mouth as she pushed her own hips towards Lexa’s to get extra friction.

As they were each grinding on the other’s thigh, Lexa backed out of the kiss, resting her forehead against Clarke’s as they both started panting for breath.

“Fuck…” Clarke breathed, gripping hard at Lexa’s hips, as she felt the first signs of her impending orgasm.

“Commander.” Raven said as the radio next to Lexa’s bed crackled to life, “we have a problem.”

Lexa clenched her jaw and ignored Raven as Clarke started to claw at her back, crashing their lips back together as the blonde’s moans and curses started to fill the air.

“Come on, Lexa, it’s a serious problem,” Raven continued, “so help me god if I have to come there and bang on your door.”

Lexa literally growled as she backed away from Clarke and grabbed the radio.

“It better be a life or death problem, Raven,” Lexa said into the radio, “or _you’re_ going to have a really serious fucking problem.”

Lexa sat back on her knees as Clarke covered her face with her arms as she tried to catch her breath and calm her body down.

“Oh, did I interrupt something,” Raven replied, “are you and Clarke…”

“Raven,” Lexa warned, “you’ve got 2 seconds to tell me what the problem is or I will use you as target practice.”

“It’s Finn,” Raven said, causing Lexa to groan, “Ontari got pretty wasted in the mess hall and he saw her staggering down the hallway. He played the gentleman and helped her to her room. That was about half an hour ago, she just came round after she passed out and her keycard is missing.”

“He took it?” Lexa asked.

“Looks that way.” Raven replied, “You want me to get Anya to deal with it, or…”

“I’ll be there in a minute, Raven.” Lexa sighed, before putting the radio back down on the table and looking at Clarke, who had taken her arms away from her eyes and was now looking up at her, “I’m sorry, I’ve got to…”

“It’s fine,” Clarke said with a soft smile, putting her hands on Lexa’s bare waist as she sat up, softly kissing her, “what are you going to do?”

“I am so done with his shit,” Lexa said, “he has Ontari’s keycard, which means that he currently has access to all the restricted access areas, he’s crossed a line.”

Clarke nodded a little.

“Do you want me to stay with Aden?” the blonde asked.

“Please,” Lexa replied with a small nod, “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Clarke kissed Lexa again before the brunette climbed off the bed, picking her t-shirt up off the floor before pulling it over her head and putting a hooded top on over it. Clarke sighed and collapsed back on the bed as Lexa left the room.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Raven could tell simply from looking at Lexa’s fact that she was so beyond angry when she walked into the command area. Anya was already in there, as was Octavia. Just as Lexa was about to say something, Abby and Jake walked into the room as well, followed by Marcus Kane.

“This had better be important.” Lexa said as she looked at Raven.

“Were you sleeping?” Anya asked.

“Not exactly,” Lexa replied with a sigh, “is Ontari sure that she didn’t just put the card somewhere else.”

“She always puts it on the table next to her bed,” Raven said, shaking her head, “it was there when she went to the mess hall, it wasn’t there when she woke up, and the only person who has been in her room other than herself, is Finn.”

“What…” Lexa started to say.

“Are you sure that nobody entered her room when she was in the mess hall?” Abby asked, interrupting Lexa with a question that Lexa had been just about to ask herself, the older Griffin woman looked at her, “I’m sorry, Commander.”

“No, it’s fine,” Lexa said shaking her head a little, “that’s literally what I was about to ask.”

“Look at you two getting along.” Raven said with a smirk.

“Raven…” Lexa said, a warning tone in her voice and her eyebrow arched a little, letting Raven know that she wasn’t in the mood for games.

“Okay, I get it, jeez,” Raven said, with a sigh, “I already looked through the security footage we have from near Ontari’s room, nobody walked down that hallway at all until Finn helped her to her room.”

“Is this part of his work for you to get information?” Lexa asked, looking at Abby.

“No,” Abby said, shaking her head, “as soon as we got here I told him that it wasn’t needed anymore.”

“What does he have access to with that card?” Jake asked.

“Every restricted access area in the facility,” Lexa replied with a sigh, “the environmental’s, the weapons hold, everywhere.”

“There.” Anya said, pointing to the screen with was full of all the security feeds from the facility.

“What’s that room?” Jake asked as they all watched Finn walk out of one of the rooms, a bag over his shoulder and a gun in his hand.

“That’s the weapons hold,” Lexa said as she headed to the door, “it’s also where the keys are for the cars.”

Anya and Octavia followed Lexa as she ran down the hallways. They passed through the decontamination area, and ran up the stairs to the surface. As soon as they were out of the door they saw Finn, sitting in one of the cars, obviously trying to figure out how to open the gates.

“If you wanted to leave,” Lexa said, causing him to look at her, “all you had to do was say so, I would’ve thrown you a party.”

“How do I open the gates?” he asked, lifting the gun he had and pointing it at Lexa.

“First you put that down.” Lexa replied.

“You think I wouldn’t shoot you.” Finn said, a smirk tugging at his lips.

“I don’t think you’d get very far if you did.” Lexa said, not backing down.

“Just tell me how to open the fucking gates.” Finn replied.

“I’m not letting you take the car, Finn,” Lexa said, “if you want to go, then go, but you’re not taking that car.”

While Finn had been concentrating on Lexa, Bellamy had come up from downstairs, with his own gun. He made his way over to the car, opening the passenger door and pointing his gun at Finn.

“Drop it.” Bellamy said, causing Finn to look between him and Lexa.

“I want to leave.” Finn said, “I wanted to take Clarke with me, but her room was empty…”

“Drop the gun, Finn.” Lexa said, ignoring what he said about Clarke.

He put the gun down on the passenger seat, Bellamy reaching into the car and grabbing it as Lexa opened the driver’s side door and pulled Finn from the car, throwing him to the ground.

“Where’s the keycard?” Lexa asked him, her foot pressing on his chest.

“In the bag.” He said, fighting to get her foot off him.

Bellamy reached into the car and got the bag from the backseat.

“Front pocket,” Finn said, squirming around under Lexa’s foot, “front pocket.”

Bellamy found the key, and opened the bag to see what else was in it. There was a knife, some food, clothes and a bottle of water. He held the keycard up so Lexa could see it.

She stepped back, taking her foot from Finn’s chest, allowing him to stand up, before she reached into the car and hit the button that opened the gates.

She then grabbed Finn by the front of his shirt and dragged him towards the gates, pushing him backwards out of the facility grounds, Bellamy handing her Finns bag.

“There’s a knife in there.” Bellamy said as he looked at her.

“He can keep that.” Lexa said, throwing the bag at Finn, “something tells me he’s going to need it.”

Lexa looked over at Octavia who was standing next to the car.

“Close the gates.” She said, the younger girl nodding before pressing the button in the car.

“I’ll be back for her.” Finn said as he looked at Lexa, “and when I do, you’ll be sorry.”

“I see you again, I’m going to shoot you.” Lexa replied, before turning around and walking back inside, the others following on behind her.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“Was that really necessary?” Abby asked as Lexa and the others walked back into the command area.

“He has been nothing but a pain in my ass since he got here,” Lexa replied, her patience running very thin, “it’s my duty to keep everyone in this facility safe, I can’t do that with people like him around. He wanted to leave, he wanted to take your daughter with him…”

“He cares about Clarke.” Abby said.

“No,” Lexa said with a bitter laugh, shaking her head, “he doesn’t, he’s obsessed with Clarke, there’s a difference, a big difference. I don’t force anyone to stay here, anyone who wants to leave is more than welcome to. But I can’t have people here who are a risk to the safety of everyone else. I’m sorry.”

“He’s going to struggle to survive out there on his own.” Abby said.

“He should have thought about that before.” Jake said, obviously seeing Lexa’s side of what was going on, “From what Clarke has said to me, Lexa has given Finn every chance, more chances that he deserved. Maybe now he’ll understand that he had a good thing here.”

“Is there anything else?” Lexa asked, looking around the group, all of them shook their heads, “Good.”

Lexa walked out of the command area and back to her room, sighing as she closed the main door, before she walked back towards her bedroom. When she got there she could see that Clarke had fallen asleep. A small smile tugged at her lips as she saw how peaceful the blonde looked.

As she took off the hooded top, and her sweatpants, and climbed into bed Clarke sleepily opened her eyes and looked at her.

“Did you kick him out?” she asked.

“I had no other choice, Clarke,” Lexa said, softly brushing a few strands of hair from the blonde’s face, “with everything that he’s done, I…”

“I get it,” Clarke replied with a soft smile, “I do. You don’t have to explain it to me, I’m just grateful that you gave him as many chances to stay as you did, leaving was obviously his choice.”

“He wanted to take you with him.” Lexa said.

“That was never going to happen,” Clarke said, shaking her head, “there’s nowhere else that I would rather be, than here, with you.”

“He picked a really shitty time to decide to leave though,” Lexa replied, a small smirk tugging at her lips, “I mean, couldn’t he have waited until the morning…”

Clarke huffed out a laugh before closing the gap between their lips.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aden gets sick and Lexa freaks out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this isn't a long update, but it's all I can write right now, my brain is literally exhausted. Drop me a comment and let me know what you think. Hopefully you enjoy.

 

 

Lexa had showered and changed before Aden had woken up, he usually woke up pretty early on his own, but for some reason Lexa hadn’t heard a sound out of his room. As she walked into his room she could see that he was still asleep, cuddled up in his duvet.

“Aden,” Lexa said, walking over to his bed, “come on buddy, time to wake up. You’re going to be late for school.”

Aden grumbled a little, pulling his duvet up over his head. Lexa furrowed her brow a little, Aden usually had no problem getting out of bed, he enjoyed school.

“Hey,” Lexa said, sitting down on the edge of his bed, “what’s the matter?”

“I feel bad…” Aden said, lifting the duvet off his own head.

Lexa put her hand on Aden’s forehead, feeling he had a raised temperature.

“You’re burning up.” Lexa said with a sigh.

“I’m sick?” Aden asked.

“I think so.” Lexa replied with a nod, “I’m going to take you to see Nyko, okay, see what he says.”

Aden nodded his head before holding his arms up, causing Lexa to smile a little before she picked him up. As soon as she picked him up the worry started building in her chest, she could feel the heat literally flowing from the young boy. Aden grumbled again as Lexa walked them out into the main room.

“The light is hurting my eyes.” Aden said burying his face in Lexa’s neck, blocking out the light from the room.

Lexa made her way from her room down to the infirmary, where she saw Abby and another guy who arrived with Clarke’s people, but no Nyko.

“Where’s Nyko?” Lexa asked as the man, Jackson if she remembered rightly, walked over to her.

“We’re sharing the workload with him.” Jackson said with a small smile, “It makes more sense considering he’s not the only doctor here now.”

Lexa considered taking Aden back to her room and bringing him back again when Nyko was back, but she could tell from the heat coming from the young boy that he really wasn’t well so she couldn’t be picky about who treated him.

Abby walked over to where Lexa was standing.

“I’ve got this, Jackson.” She said, causing Jackson to nod a little before he walked away, “Why don’t you come with me.”

Lexa nodded slightly, clenching her jaw as she followed Abby. She didn’t fail to notice Aden tighten his grip on her t-shirt as Abby spoke, he’d yet to meet Abby, though he had met Jake already and they got along great.

“So,” Abby said, as she motioned for Lexa to sit on the bed with Aden, “what’s the problem?”

“He has a temperature,” Lexa replied, “and he said something about the light hurting his eyes.”

“Okay,” Abby said with a soft smile, before moving to Lexa’s side and tried to get Aden to look at her, “is it okay if I take your temperature?”

“Where’s Nyko?” Aden said, looking up at Lexa, “I want Nyko.”

“Nyko isn’t here right now, buddy,” Lexa said as she looked down at him, “this is Abby, she’s Clarke’s mom. Can she take your temperature?”

“Will it hurt?” Aden asked.

“No,” Lexa said, shaking her head, “it won’t hurt.”

“Promise?” Aden said, looking between Lexa and Abby, his bottom lip jutting out slightly.

“Would it make you feel better if Abby showed you the thermometer first?” Lexa asked.

“Yeah,” Aden grumbled, resting his head on Lexa’s shoulder again, “show me the mometer.”

Abby couldn’t stop the smile that tugged at her lips as she walked over to one of the tables and picked up the strip thermometer, before walking back over to the bed where Lexa was sitting with Aden.

“This is the thermometer.” She said, holding the strip out to Aden.

“Where you put this?” Aden asked his brow furrowed as he looked at the small strip in his hand, the confusion on his face making Lexa laugh, “what’s funny?”

“Nothing, buddy,” Lexa replied, fighting to stop the laugh as she remembered that Aden got cranky when he was sick, “this goes across your forehead.”

“Okay.” Aden said with a nod, his bottom lip still sticking out slightly.

“I’m going to need you to sit up,” Abby said, “is that okay?”

Aden sat up a little straighter, lifting his head from Lexa’s shoulders, both Abby and Lexa looking a little concerned as he blinked his eyes a few times before shaking his head slightly.

“You okay?” Lexa asked.

“Feel sick…” Aden said, putting his hand over his mouth.

Abby rushed to get something for Aden to throw up in, returning back with it just in time for the young boy to vomit.

“You’re okay,” Lexa said, rubbing his back softly, “you’re okay.”

“Do you want to lay down on the bed?” Abby asked Aden when he had finished throwing up, “I can take your temperature when you’re laying down and it might make you feel a little better.”

Aden nodded a little and Lexa stood up, keeping Aden in her arms as she moved the blanket back on the bed before laying the young boy down.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Lexa was sitting next to the bed that Aden was now sleeping in, Abby was sure that Aden was just a little under the weather, but she’d taken some blood anyway. Lexa was obviously thinking the worst, with knowing that Mount Weather had somehow managed to manipulate the virus to delay the bodies reaction to it, and not knowing how else they may have altered it, she really hoped that Abby was right.

“I’m going to put an IV in his arm,” Abby said as she walked back over to Lexa, “just to get his fluids back up and get some basic antibiotics into him.”

“Okay.” Lexa replied with a nod, her eyes fixed on Aden.

“Try not to worry.” Abby said, resting her hand on Lexa’s shoulder and squeezing it reassuringly, “it’s probably nothing to worry about.”

Lexa didn’t say anything, she just nodded her head slightly.

After Abby had set up the IV drip she walked away, leaving Lexa alone with Aden. The brunette sighed as she reached over to the young boy and trailed her finger softly down his cheek, a small smile tugging at her lips as he grumbled something before he wiggled closer to the side of the bed where Lexa was sitting.

While Lexa was lost in her thoughts, Clarke walked into the infirmary, Anya telling her that Aden was sick. Instead of going over to Lexa, she went over to her mother first.

“How is he?” Clarke asked, glancing over at where Lexa was sitting with Aden.

“He has a pretty high temperature,” Abby replied, “I’m just running some of his blood to see if there’s any kind of infection present in his blood. At the moment, it just looks like he’s a little under the weather. I’m actually surprised more of the kids here aren’t ill in some way, they don’t get out into the sun much.”

“They get out most days,” Clarke said, “it’s safer for them down here than it would be up there.”

“It may be safer, but it would be healthier for them up there, breathing fresh air rather than refiltered air.” Abby said with a sigh, “but needs must.”

“They get to be kids down here, mom,” Clarke replied, shaking her head slightly, “sure, it’s not perfect, but at least they don’t have to worry about having to survive every day.”

“I’m trying to see this place as a positive place, Clarke, I am…” Abby said.

“Well, try harder.” Clarke said before walking over to where Lexa was sitting with Aden.

Lexa was so lost in her thoughts that she nearly jumped from the chair when an arm wrapped around her shoulders from behind, but she immediately relaxed when she heard Clarke talk.

“Hey…” the blonde said, placing a soft kiss on the side of Lexa’s head as the brunette’s hands gripped at her arm, “it’s going to be okay.”

“He was fine when I put him to bed last night.” Lexa said quietly, “I just don’t get it…”

“Kids get sick,” Clarke replied, “it’s a normal part of growing up.”

“Aden hardly ever gets sick,” Lexa said with a sigh, “but he gets cranky as hell when he does. His bottom lip was sticking out so much that he would’ve tripped over it if he had to walk anywhere.”

Clarke couldn’t stop the small laugh that escaped her lips, which caused Aden to stir.

“Hey buddy,” Clarke said with a soft smile as Aden looked at her, “you doing okay?”

“Your mom used the mometer on me.” Aden grumbled, “and she stabbed me in the arm.”

“She took some blood from your arm, you didn’t even notice that she’d done it, stop being so melodramatic.” Lexa replied, leaning over the bed and kissing Aden softly on the head.

“Can we go home now?” Aden asked as he looked at Lexa.

“Not yet,” Lexa said, shaking her head a little, “you’ve got to stay here for a little while longer.”

“Will you stay with me?” he asked, causing Lexa to nod, “you promise?”

“I promise,” Lexa replied, kissing his head again, “I’m not going anywhere.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

Later that day Raven made her way to the infirmary, she’d managed to find a basic floor plan for the Mount Weather facility and made a few modifications to it with Lincoln’s help as he told her what he remembered from inside the facility. Aden was still asleep when Raven pulled up a chair next to Lexa.

“Here’s the floor plan.” She said, handing Lexa the papers, “There’s one way in and one way out.”

“That’s going to make things a little more difficult.” Lexa replied as she looked over the papers.

“I was talking to Anya, and we’re thinking a night attack might be your best option,” Raven said, “surprise them.”

“Do we know where they’re holding the people that they’ve taken?” Lexa asked.

“Lincoln said that he remembered being dragged from the car they had him in, along a corridor here,” Raven pointed to an area on the map, “he said there’s a large room with people kept chained up. There’s another room towards the back of the large room where they take people to test, and he mentioned something about another room a little further down that corridor where they seem to be keeping the infected.”

“So, we can get to the room where they have people without passing the room where the infected are?” Lexa said.

“It seems that way,” Raven replied with a nod, “but you know as soon as they realise you’re there, they’re going to open that door.”

“Well, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy.” Lexa said with a sigh.

“Not to be the voice of doom here,” Raven said quietly so only Lexa could hear her, “but are you sure it’s worth the risk?”

“We can’t just leave them there, Raven,” Lexa replied, “too many people have already died…”

“And how many more are going to die before this is over?” Raven asked.

“I don’t know.” Lexa said.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a while, but I've had so many other ideas for other fics (and the whole 7 fics in 7 days for Clexaweek took a lot out of me creatively). Hopefully you enjoy this chapter, drop me a comment and let me know.

 

It had taken a couple of days for Aden to start to feel better, Abby had been right when she said it wasn’t anything serious, but the young boy was still extremely clingy and didn’t want to leave Lexa’s side. Lexa couldn’t shower or use the bathroom without leaving Aden with the only other person he wanted to be around, Clarke. While she hadn’t been able to help Clarke’s people training with the guns, Anya had taken over that for her, and she could tell, simply from the glares that Anya had been throwing her way, just how much Anya was enjoying it.

Lexa knew that even though they weren’t running to any kind of real schedule, they needed to get everyone ready as soon as possible. She had no doubt in her mind that even though she had very little faith in Finns abilities, if by some huge stroke of luck the idiot had managed to survive, he would head straight for the Mountain. She knew that would be dangerous for her people, the people she had a duty to protect.

If she’d thought about it a little more clearly when she had found him with the key card, she wouldn’t have kicked him out of the compound, she would have just had him locked up in one of the holding rooms that they never used. But obviously she hadn’t given it that much thought, her head wasn’t entirely where it should have been due to what had been going on with her and Clarke before Raven interrupted them, it was a mistake, she knew that.

She had just finished talking to Raven about another suggestion that she had. They weren’t going to be able to take everyone with them when they went to Mount Weather, but they would probably need medics nearby, so Raven’s suggestion was Abby, Jackson and a few others could go back to where they had their own compound and all the injured could be taken there. Lexa knew it made sense, she knew that they weren’t all going to make it out of Mount Weather unscathed, and while she was thinking about it she considered asking Clarke to go with her mother. She knew that Clarke wanted to go with her to the mountain, but deep down Lexa knew that if Clarke was there she wouldn’t be able to concentrate, her mind wouldn’t be 100% in what she needed to do if she was worrying about Clarke being okay.

Part of her wanted Clarke to stay at the compound, and she knew that if she asked her the blonde would probably agree, but she also knew that Clarke wouldn’t be happy about that.

Lexa made her way up to the surface, carrying Aden as the young boy gripped her shirt and rested his head on her shoulder.

“You doing okay, buddy?” Lexa asked.

“Tired…” Aden sighed.

“After we go up and check how Anya’s getting on, then we can get dinner and then you can go to sleep,” Lexa replied, kissing him softly on the head, “does that sound okay?”

Aden nodded slightly.

“Where’s Clarke?” he asked.

“Clarke’s up with Anya and the others,” Lexa said as she walked up the stairs, “we’ll see her in a minute.”

Aden buried his face is Lexa’s neck as reached the surface, the light hurting his eyes, it caused Lexa to squint her eyes a little as well. As they walked out of the building she could hear Anya shouting at people to keep their guns steady as they fired. It didn’t take her long to find Clarke, the blonde was leaning against one of the cars watching as the rest of her people were yelled at by Anya, Bellamy and Octavia.

“Hey.” Clarke said with a smile as she saw Lexa and Aden.

“How’s it going over there?” Lexa asked with a small smile of her own.

“I think Anya’s enjoying this a little too much.” Clarke replied with a laugh.

“She never turns down an opportunity to yell.” Lexa said with a nod and a laugh of her own.

“Hey bud,” Clarke said, as she looked at Aden, “you okay?”

“He’s tired.” Lexa said with a soft smile.

“Already?” Clarke asked, “it’s not bedtime yet.”

“I think he’s still not 100% better yet,” Lexa said, kissing the young boy on the head, “he’s getting there though.”

“Lexa,” Abby said, walking over to the three of them, “can I talk to you.”

“Do you want to hang out with Clarke for a little while bud?” Lexa asked Aden, when the young boy nodded, Lexa handed him to Clarke, “I’ll be back soon.”

“Take your time.” Clarke said, leaning over and softly kissing Lexa’s lips.

For some reason, Lexa couldn’t stop the slight blush of her cheeks as she walked away with Abby, both of Clarke’s parents knew about the relationship between Clarke and Lexa, but that didn’t mean that Abby was 100% behind it.

“Do we have a timetable yet?” Abby asked as she and Lexa walked away from where Clarke was standing with Aden.

“Not yet,” Lexa replied, shaking her head, “I need to talk to Anya, to see how well she thinks everyone is doing. With Aden being unwell for the last couple of days I can’t really use my judgement on that, as I haven’t seen enough.”

“Surely the longer we leave it the more people we’re leaving to die inside that mountain,” Abby said, causing Lexa to sigh, “we have no idea what they’re doing to my people in there, Lexa…”

“With all due respect,” Lexa said, interrupting Abby, “if we go in before your people are ready, then the more lives we’re risking.”

“If those were your people inside the mountain…” Abby started to say.

“I would still insist on waiting,” Lexa said, interrupting her again, “there is no point in mounting a rescue when you’re just going to end up getting everyone killed.”

“And if Clarke was in there…?” Abby asked.

“She isn’t.” Lexa replied.

Before Abby could say anything else, the radio that Lexa was carrying crackled to life.

“Lexa, you there?” Raven asked.

Lexa took the radio off her belt, sighing a little before bringing it to her mouth.

“What’s up Raven?” She asked in reply.

“I’m picking something up over long range radio,” Raven said, “you’re going to want to come and hear this.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

Lexa made her way down to the control room, with Clarke carrying Aden, and Abby following her.

“What is it, Rae?” Lexa asked as she walked into the room.

“Monty was fiddling around with the long-range radio scanner,” she said, wheeling her chair over to the speakers she had set up, “just to see if we were missing anything, we got this.”

Raven turned up the volume on the radio.

“I repeat, is anyone still alive on this frequency?” said a female voice through the speakers, “This is General Becca Dalton, US Army, is anyone still alive on this frequency?”

Everyone looked at Lexa, the brunette herself was looking at the radio a shocked look on her face.

“Is that a repeating message, Raven?” she asked.

“Nope,” Raven said, shaking her head, “I wasn’t sure if you’d want me to reply, let her know that we are still alive. Plus, I’m not military, so I’d probably say something that would get us all shot or something.”

Raven held the radio out to Lexa, who took a deep breath before saying anything.

“General Dalton,” she said, “this is Commander Lexa Woods, we still have people alive.”

“Commander, where are your superiors?” Becca asked over the radio.

“It’s er… it’s been a tough year, ma’am.” Lexa replied, swallowing the lump that had developed in her throat.

“I hear that,” Becca said with a sigh, “how many people do you still have, Commander?”

“About 150, though we are expecting that number to rise.” Lexa said.

“We have created a safe space, completely infection free, above ground around the New York facility.” Becca said, “I am actually leading a convoy of vehicles in your direction.”

“I don’t suppose you have any soldiers with you, do you?” Lexa asked, “we’re a few days away from mounting a rescue mission on Mount Weather, I don’t have enough properly trained personnel…”

“I have the numbers with me,” Becca said, “you can talk me through your plan of action when we get there in a few hours.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Lexa replied with a nod, though she knew Becca couldn’t see her.

“And Woods,” Becca said, “Good job keeping your people alive.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

While Lexa took a shower after putting Aden to bed, Clarke sat on the young boy’s bed and watched him sleep. Her mind couldn’t help but wonder what the safe above ground area would be like, the kids would probably love it, the only thing standing between them and New York was Mount Weather. Clarke had been seriously worrying about what was going to happen at Mount Weather, she knew that it would be a struggle for them to rescue anyone without properly trained people, and she knew that Lexa was doing the best she could with helping her people. But now that they would be getting help, Clarke felt a little better about it, she was still worried, obviously, but now her worries had eased slightly.

Clarke was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t hear Lexa come back into the room.

“He’s adorable when he’s asleep, huh?” Lexa asked quietly, placing a soft kiss on Clarke’s temple.

“You actually look a lot like that when you sleep.” Clarke replied, turning and looking at the brunette, biting back the laugh at Lexa’s offended face.

“You wound me Griffin.” Lexa said, putting her hand over her heart.

“How long till General Dalton arrives?” Clarke asked.

“About another hour,” Lexa replied, “I’m hoping she’s not expecting us all to be properly dressed, I haven’t had everyone hear in full uniform for so long.”

“I’m sure she’s not expecting that.” Clarke said, following Lexa out of Aden’s room and into her own bedroom, “Is she likely to take command here?”

“I don’t know,” Lexa said with a sigh as she sat down on her bed, “it’s her right, she is my superior, but I don’t know if she will.”

“I want to come with you to Mount Weather.” Clarke said, sitting next to Lexa, “From the look on your face you don’t seem too surprised by that.”

“I’m not,” Lexa replied with a small smile, “one of the things I want to talk through with General Dalton is the possibility of setting up a medical outpost, in the compound where your people were… if it’s still there, and not overrun by infected. I’ve gone through the floor plans that we have for the facility, and it’s going to be practically impossible to get everyone out without some casualties. I’d prefer it if you were there rather than in Mount Weather…”

“Lex…” Clarke sighed.

“I know, I know,” Lexa said, taking hold of Clarke’s hands, “I don’t want you in danger, Clarke…”

“But it’s okay for you to be in danger?” Clarke asked.

“It’s my job.” Lexa replied, “it’s what I do.”

“I can use a gun, Lexa, you’ve seen me shoot.” Clarke said, pulling her hands away from Lexa’s.

“I know that, Clarke, I do,” Lexa said with a sigh, “I just won’t be able to concentrate on what I need to do if you’re there, I’ll be too worried about you…”

“I don’t need you to protect me, Lexa.” Clarke said, shaking her head before she stood up and walked from the room.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexa has a nightmare about what might happen during the attack on Mount Weather, Clarke is stubborn, Lexa teaches Clarke how to shoot properly. They both agree that some people are worth melting for, and there's fluff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay. We're coming up to the Mount Weather chapter soon. Drop me a comment, let me know what you think of this part.

_Gunfire filled the air, as smoke completely overtook her senses. She couldn’t see more than a foot in front of her face, the chemicals in the air making that task a lot more difficult as her eyes started to water, she could hear familiar voices calling out all around her. People calling out for help. A flash of blonde hair caught her eye through the billowing smoke, her breath hitching in her throat as a familiar face got closer to her. She could see blood soaking into her clothes, hands reaching out to her, eyes pleading. Flesh torn from the side of her neck causing the bile to rise up in her stomach._

 

Lexa sat up on the sofa, gasping for breath as the visions from her nightmare slowly faded from her mind. She leant forward resting her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands as she tried to swallow down the sick feeling. With her fingers resting on her own forehead she could feel the clamminess of her own skin. It had been a while since she had awoken from a nightmare in cold sweats, it was also a new face in those nightmares.

“Doing okay there, Woods?” General Becca Dalton said from where she was standing in the doorway of Lexa’s room.

“Yeah.” Lexa said with a sigh and a nod as she sat back on the sofa.

“The nightmares get us all.” Becca said as she walked into the room, glancing towards Aden’s bedroom before joining Lexa on the sofa, “tell me about the kid, you don’t strike me as the mother type.”

“In any other situation, I’m not sure I would be,” Lexa said, huffing out a small laugh, “but Aden’s different… his mom was a medic stationed here with my unit just after the outbreak started. We were out searching for survivors, she, er… she didn’t make it.”

“And you two were close?” Becca asked.

“Yeah.” Lexa replied with a nod, “we were. It wasn’t exactly a relationship, but we were certainly heading in that direction.”

“Fraternization rules be damned, huh?” Becca said, her lips pulling into a small smirk.

“With all due respect, ma’am, when the world is going to shit like this, fraternization rules aren’t really at the forefront of your mind.” Lexa replied with a small shake of her head.

“We’ve got a lot of kids like Aden back in New York,” Becca said, ignoring what Lexa had said about the rules, “orphans are…”

“He isn’t an orphan,” Lexa said, interrupting her, “he has me.”

“I didn’t mean anything by it.” Becca replied.

“I know,” Lexa said with a sigh, “it’s just… for a while I didn’t think I was going to make it through this, we were losing people every day, my superiors were disappearing fast, the chain of command was becoming a little… well a lot shorter. Then everything with Costia, and not being able to do anything to help her… He became my reason to get through this. Obviously, I have other people here that I have to look out for, it’s my job, my duty to keep them safe, but I knew that if anything happened to me there’d still be someone else to take over. But with Aden… Everyone else was a reason to fight, Aden is a reason to live.”

“How did you end up planning to mount a rescue mission for a group of civilians?” Becca asked.

“That’s our job right,” Lexa replied, “That’s what we signed up for…”

“Definitely, but a lot of others would be tempted to just lock down tight and ride it out down here.” Becca said, “others have.”

“I was tempted,” Lexa said, a small smile playing on her lips, “their ‘chancellor’ and I didn’t exactly get off on the right foot. She hates the military, thinks we abandoned them, which, you know, I don’t blame her, because that’s pretty much what happened. The military, the government… but this is more than just a simple rescue mission, I think we’ll find a lot more than just people inside that base.”

“I read the notes you made,” Becca said with a small nod, “it seems that we may find some of the original infection strain there, which could be used to create a cure.”

“If we have the right scientists…” Lexa said, “which we don’t have here. I think Abby would be our best bet.”

“There’s a team of scientists in New York,” Becca replied, “and politicians, believe it or not.”

“That’s a shame, I thought they’d be the first to go.” Lexa said, causing Becca to laugh.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Lexa hadn’t seen Clarke since the blonde had walked out of her room the evening before, she hadn’t been at breakfast when Lexa had gone with Aden, nor had she been in the command centre with Raven at any point that morning. Lexa knew they needed to talk about what had happened, but to do that they had to be in the same place. Part of Lexa was amused by the fact that she hadn’t seen Clarke, the facility wasn’t that big so she was amused by Clarke’s stubbornness as she had to really be going out of her way to avoid Lexa.

After dropping Aden off with Ontari in the room used for the school, Lexa made her way upstairs where she knew Clarke’s people were still working with Anya, and now a few of Becca’s people, to get ready for the mission to Mount Weather. As she walked outside she could see Clarke shooting one of the targets. Lexa stood back and watched as Octavia tried to give the blonde a few pointers about her technique, pointers that seemed to be falling on deaf ears. She watched as Octavia moved on to another of the people shooting, before she walked up behind Clarke, narrowing her eyes a little as she watched the way Clarke was standing and holding the gun.

With a sigh, she stepped closer to the blonde.

“Your legs need to be a little further apart.” Lexa said, knowing from the clenching of Clarke’s jaw that she had heard her, she was just choosing to ignore her, “and your arms need to be straighter…”

“Why do you care.” Clarke said, not taking her eyes from the target in front of her as she pulled the trigger again, “If you had your way I’d be stuck here where it’s safe…”

“That’s true,” Lexa admitted, “but if you’re determined to come with us you can at least give yourself every opportunity to survive the trip.”

A small smile played on Lexa’s lips as she watched Clarke reset her feet, a little further apart than they had been.

“What else did you say?” Clarke asked, glancing back at Lexa, rolling her eyes as she saw the small smile on Lexa’s lips, “don’t look so smug, asshole.”

“Straighten your arms,” Lexa said, stepping right up behind Clarke, her own hands travelling down the length of Clarke’s arms to where her hands held the gun, “your left hand is your dominant hand, so that’s the one that should be around the grip with your index finger on the trigger.”

Clarke changed the way her hands were positioned, swallowing a little harder as she felt Lexa’s body almost mould into hers.

“Now,” Lexa said, “you’ve been watching too many movies, your right hand doesn’t need to be underneath the clip, it’s not going to fall out. You need to put it over your left hand, just under the trigger.”

“Like this?” Clarke asked as she did as Lexa said.

“Yeah,” Lexa replied, “that’s perfect. Now, shoot the target.”

As soon as Lexa stepped away from her Clarke missed her presence.

“Why do my arms have to be straight?” Clarke asked, glancing back at the brunette again.

“Because if they’re not straight you could get a nasty kickback and hit yourself in the face.” Lexa said, a smirk tugging at her lips.

“That would be bad.” Clarke said with a nod, causing Lexa to laugh a little.

“Yeah, it would be,” she agreed, “now shoot the target.”

Clarke suddenly felt very self-conscious, knowing that Lexa was watching her, but she did as the brunette said and shot at the target, missing what would be a kill shot to the head by quite a distance.

“You trying to take their ears off, or…?” Lexa questioned, fighting the laugh that was threatening to escape her as Clarke grumbled something she couldn’t understand.

“Okay,” Clarke said, turning to Lexa, “show me how it’s done.”

Lexa simply rolled her eyes and stepped up next to Clarke, a smirk playing on her lips as she took out her own gun, checking the clip before lifting it at aiming at the target. She quickly fired off five rounds, all hitting the exact same spot on the target.

“Smart-ass…” Clarke said.

“Military trained smart-ass.” Lexa corrected.

“Yeah,” Clarke replied, “I suppose you have your uses.”

“Good to know,” Lexa said, with a laugh as she shook her head, “try again.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

“Is she going to be a distraction?” Becca asked as she stood next to Anya, both of them watching Lexa and Clarke.

“Difficult to say,” Anya replied honestly, “so far she hasn’t, she’s actually been good for Lexa, but in a combat situation, I don’t know.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

Clarke stood next to where Raven was sitting in the command centre, both watching as Becca, Lexa, Anya and Abby talked over the plan for the attack on Mount Weather. With the numbers that Becca brought with her they wouldn’t need to wait much longer before they went in, which pleased Abby no end. Clarke could see Lexa clench her jaw as her mother directed another round of questions at Becca, rather than Lexa. She could see the frustration building in the Commander, though Becca was her superior, this was Lexa’s facility.

Jake walked over to where Clarke was standing.

“You doing okay, kid?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah,” Clarke said with a nod, “just thinking about how Lexa is plotting to kill mom in her head.”

Jake laughed a little as he looked at the small group gathered around the main table.

“If she hasn’t done that already, I don’t think she’s going to,” Jake said, “I actually thought that she was going to do it on the day we arrived here.”

“If she wasn’t so interested in banging your daughter, I think she would have.” Raven said, laughing as Clarke’s cheeks filled with colour.

“How’s it going between you two?” Jake asked, ignoring what Raven had said.

“She wants me to stay here.” Clarke replied with a sigh, “said something about not being able to do what she needs to do if she’s worrying about me.”

“She cares about you.” Jake said.

“I know,” Clarke said, “but she also needs to understand that I can take care of myself. Those are our people in there, dad, I need to be there.”

“I don’t think there’s really an us and them anymore, sweetie,” he said with a soft smile, “you saw to that.”

Clarke let out another sigh when she realised that her father was, obviously, right.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Clarke quietly walked up to Lexa’s open door, a smile playing on her lips as she heard Aden laughing, the full kind of laugh that young kids without a care in the world do. They’d be moving on Mount Weather in 24 hours, and she knew that Aden would have no idea what was going on, he wouldn’t know how dangerous it was going to be, because Lexa would never let him know that. Part of Clarke worried what would happen to the young boy if the worst should happen, if Lexa didn’t make it back. She knew that there would be others that would take care of him, but she also knew that it wouldn’t be the same for him.

She actually laughed as she stood in the doorway and watched as Lexa tickled Aden, the smile on the brunette’s face matched only by the one on the face of the young boy.

“Clarke!” Aden yelled through the giggles as he saw her, “save me.”

“That’s cheating.” Lexa said, making him laugh harder before she stopped tickling him and lifted him from the floor, kissing him on the head.

“Everything okay in here?” Clarke asked, smile still firmly on her lips.

“Yeah,” Lexa replied, sitting on the sofa, Aden on her lap, “apart from this little guy trying to escape down the hallway while I was getting him ready for bed.”

“Watch a movie with us?” Aden said as he looked at the blonde expectantly.

A look passed between Clarke and Lexa, before Lexa patted the sofa next to her, inviting the blonde to join them.

“What are we watching?” Clarke asked as she walked into the room and sat down next to Lexa.

“Frozen!” Aden happily yelled.

“Again,” Lexa said, leaning closer to Clarke, “I think he actually wants to be Elsa.”

“He’d look good in blue.” Clarke replied, causing Lexa to laugh.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Aden fell asleep before the movie ended, Lexa putting him to bed, before re-joining Clarke on the sofa.

“Do you want to watch something else?” Lexa asked.

“Shh,” Clarke said, furrowing her brow a little, “this is the best bit.”

Lexa smiled and shook her head as Clarke sighed through the “some people are worth melting for” line.

“Do you think some people are worth melting for, Commander Woods?” Clarke asked, a small smile playing on her lips as she looked at Lexa.

“Yeah, I do.” Lexa replied with a small nod of her head, her eyes fixed on the blonde.

“I need to come with you to Mount Weather,” Clarke said, resting her forehead against Lexa’s, “it’s the only way I know you’re going to come back, I can’t sit here wondering if I’m never going to see you again, I just can’t…”

“Okay…” Lexa said, before softly capturing Clarke’s lips with hers.

“I expected an argument.” Clarke said quietly as she backed away a little.

“No arguments, not this time.” Lexa replied, shaking her head slightly, “I already asked your dad to look after Aden.”

“Lexa, I…” Clarke said, unable to get herself to say the three words that she wanted to say.

“I know.” Lexa said, softly kissing the blonde, “tell me after.”

“Every day after.” Clarke replied.


	16. Important note

Explanation time, I’ve been having a difficult time with my illness (bipolar) over the last few months, my moods have been pretty manic and that isn’t a good time to try and be creative. Because of that I’ve had no access to a laptop (I actually smashed up my last one, have a new one now though) and I’ve been forcing myself to stay off the internet because I wanted to literally delete everything that I’ve ever written.

Everything has balanced out again now with new medication (and a lot of help from friends) so I’m posting this note on all of my on-going fanfictions to find out if anyone is interested in me actually continuing them as it has been so long since I updated. Reply in the comments and let me know either way.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While inside Mount Weather, Lexa is offered a deal...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for being so patient with waiting for this update, it really means a lot. This chapter isn't as long as I had planned for it to be, but I'm in a very bitter mood about England's women team losing the football. Hopefully you enjoy this chapter, drop me a comment and let me know.

It had all seemed too easy when they arrived at the mountain complex, it was almost like Mount Weather were expecting them. Now, Clarke stood and watched as the bodies were brought out from inside the mountain. As they were laid out on the ground she realised that out of the first 10 bodies she vaguely recognised 3 of them. They weren’t Lexa’s people, they were 3 of the people who had arrived with the General, but the last time Clarke had seen one of them they had been following Lexa down a corridor within the complex, right after their group had split up.

“Let’s get you looked at.” One of the army medics said as they walked over to Clarke.

“I’m fine.” Clarke replied, shaking her head.

“You’re bleeding.” The medic said, motioning to Clarkes arm.

She sighed as she sat down on a nearby rock before taking the shirt off which Lexa had given her that morning before they left the building where they had spent the previous night.

“Looks like a bullet grazed your arm.” The medic said as he started to clean up the wound on the blonde’s arm.

As the medic was finishing up and Clarke put the shirt back on, Anya walked over to them, radio in hand.

“You okay?” she asked, motioning to Clarkes arm.

“Yeah,” Clarke replied with a nod, “just a scratch. You heard anything?”

“Not yet,” Anya said with a sigh, “still got no radio contact inside the complex. General Dalton still has at least one team in there. She’ll be fine.”

“Yeah…” Clarke said, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt.

Octavia walked over to the pair, putting a fresh clip of ammunition in her gun as she walked.

“We’re going back in there, right?” she asked, looking at Anya.

“I don’t know,” Anya replied, “it’s hard to say who is in charge right now…”

“Fuck being in charge,” Octavia said, interrupting her, “Lexa’s still in there, and we’re not leaving her.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

“You can’t just keep me locked in here!” Finn yelled as he banged on the door.

“Shut the fuck up and stop banging on the door or I’ll just shoot you and be done with it.” Lexa replied, kicking the door before she walked back over to the wall opposite the door where she had been standing for the previous 5 minutes.

Her position in the corridor gave her a view both ways, so she could see if anyone else was coming. She had known her decision with Finn would come back to bite her in the ass, she just hadn’t expected it to be as spectacular as it turned out to be. If she’d have locked him up at her facility, rather than letting him go, then Mount Weather would’ve had no idea they were planning to attack.

She checked the ammo she had left in her gun; the clip was nearly empty so she changed it for the full clip that was in her pocket. She still had her hand gun and 4 clips of ammunition if she needed it, but she also knew if she got that desperate she was as good as dead anyway.

“Did you bring Clarke with you?” Finn asked from his current position inside the small room, banging on the door when Lexa didn’t respond, “you dragged her out here to die, didn’t you? I told you that you’d get her killed.”

“If you don’t shut your mouth, I’m about to use you as live bait.” Lexa said, clenching her jaw a little as she tried to listen for gunshots or footsteps, not sure which she would rather hear at that moment.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“Jesus…” Anya said as she pushed another body with her foot, checking for any signs of life.

“That was one of the infected, right?” Clarke asked as she and Octavia followed behind Anya, guns ready.

“Looks like it,” Anya said, glancing back at them, “let’s keep moving.”

“The last time I saw Lexa she was heading down there.” Clarke said, using her gun to point to the corridor she had last seen Lexa walking down.

“Then that’s where we’re going.” Anya replied.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Lexa turned her head slightly to the right, narrowing her eyes as she listened, sure she could hear voices. Male voices. Voices that were completely unfamiliar to her.

“Do we even know why they’re here?” one man asked.

“Does it matter why they’re here,” another said, “we either kill them or use them.”

As the voices got louder Lexa lifted her gun and pointed it in the direction of the sound. She pulled the trigger as she spotted the uniform of the Mount Weather security.

“Don’t shoot, don’t shoot.” The other man said, he was an older guy, he wasn’t wearing the same uniform as the security detail, but she could tell by looking at him that he was involved in some way.

“Give me one good reason why not.” Lexa said, her gun still pointed at him.

“You’re army, right?” the guy said to her, “US military?”

“Marines,” Lexa replied, “though right now I’m just a woman with a gun. I’ll ask again, give me one good reason not to shoot you.”

“I think we can work together,” the man said as he walked closer to where Lexa was standing, “come to some kind of agreement that will benefit us all.”

“The only agreement I can think of that will in anyway benefit me, is if you all die.” Lexa said.

“We are developing a cure for the virus,” the man said, “we can give you access.”

“The virus you created.” Lexa stated.

“It has mutated.” He replied.

“You mean your scientists are coming up with different strains and you’ve lost control of it.” Lexa said, shaking her head slightly, “what do you want in return for access to the cure?”

“You can’t seriously be thinking about taking his offer.” Finn yelled.

“Shut the fuck up, Finn, or I will shoot you.” Lexa said, glaring at the door before she looked at the guy who was still walking closer towards her, “come any closer and I have a bullet right here with your name on it too.”

He stopped in his tracks and held his hands up a little.

“Here’s the deal,” the man said, “you can take your troops and walk out of here, we’ll give you a sample of the cure that we have down in the labs on level 3, and the information that you need to manufacture more of it. The only thing I ask for in return, is that you leave the people here that we picked up from the nearby community.”

Lexa pulled the trigger on her gun, shooting the man where he stood.

“No deal,” she said, before reaching to her belt and getting her radio, she knew they didn’t have radio contact with anyone outside the complex, but she knew that any one of her people inside would hear her, “the cure is in the labs down on level 3, or what they have of it anyway.”

“How do you know that?” General Dalton asked in reply.

“Their leader just told me when he offered me a deal,” Lexa said, “unfortunately I couldn’t accept the deal he offered, but he gave me the location of the labs before telling me what he wanted in reply.”

“And what did he want?” Becca said.

“Too much.” Lexa replied, sliding down the wall so she was now sitting.

“Can you and your team get to the labs?” Becca asked.

“I have no team,” Lexa said, “it’s just me, and my blood doesn’t seem to want to stay in my body anymore…”

“Hang on, Lexa,” Anya said over the radio, “We’re coming to get you.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

Lexa’s eyes started to flutter open, though she couldn’t remember when she had closed them. She felt an intense pain in her stomach and every time she took a breath it felt like she was breaking something.

“Look who’s back in the land of the living.” Abby said with a soft smile as she saw that Lexa was awake.

“Where are we?” Lexa asked, furrowing her brow as she looked around her.

“Back at your facility.” Abby replied.

“How long was I out?” Lexa said, trying to sit up.

“4 days,” Abby said, putting her hand on Lexa’s shoulder, stopping her from sitting up, “you’re still healing, I would appreciate it if you didn’t tear open your stitches so soon.”

“The cure…” Lexa said, recalling the last thing she remembered.

“Isn’t a fully developed cure,” Abby replied, “though it is close to it. The scientists are working on it as we speak and they’re pretty sure they’ll have a workable cure for the most common strain of the virus within 10 days.”

“What happened to Finn?” Lexa asked, remembering that she had him locked in a room before she lost consciousness.

“Anya put him in one of the holding rooms,” Abby said, as she handed Lexa a cup of water, “she was just going to tie him up to the fence, but figured she’d wait until you were awake first. Something about you missing the show.”

Lexa started to laugh before she started coughing.

“Ouch…” she groaned.

“Like I said,” Abby said, “you’re still healing.”

A small laugh from the doorway made Lexa look over, a soft smile playing on her lips as she saw Clarke leaning against the doorway watching her.

“Hey…” Lexa said.

“Hey yourself,” Clarke said as she walked into the room and sat down on the chair next to Lexa’s bed, taking the brunette’s hand as Abby excused herself to go and check on another patient, “you had me worried there for a little while.”

“I’m sorry.” Lexa replied, “there were bullets flying everywhere and…”

“You don’t need to explain it,” Clarke said with a smile, “I’m just glad you’re going to be okay.”

“How’s Aden?” Lexa asked.

“He’s fast asleep.” Clarke replied, “he’s spent the last couple of days sitting in here and reading to you from a storybook that he and my dad found. He can’t read the actual story, but I’m pretty sure that Snow White and the Dwarves are pretty impressed that they have a pet dragon.”

“Don’t make me laugh,” Lexa groaned, “your mom will kick my ass if I tear my stitches.”

“What deal did the guy in the mountain offer you?” Clarke asked, “we heard you over the radio saying that he wanted too much, but we never did find out what.”

“He said me and my troops could leave, with a sample of the cure,” Lexa replied, “and he wanted to keep your people in return.”

“Thank you…” Clarke said, leaning over and softly kissing Lexa’s head, before sitting back in the seat, “and you didn’t kill Finn either. That impressed me.”

“There’s still time for that.” Lexa said, causing Clarke to laugh, hard, which caused Abby to look over at the pair, a small smile on her lips.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexa knew taking on Mount Weather wasn't going to be as simple as it appeared to be, everyone is about to find out just how hard it's going to get.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure I like this chapter at all, but I'm going to post it and see what you all think. I may delete it tomorrow when I have a chance to re-read it. I didn't want to drag this part out, but it was needed. Drop me a comment and let me know if you think I should keep it as it is or re-write it.

Clarke looked over to the door of the medical room, from where she was standing she could see her mother talking to General Dalton in the hallway, though as the door was closed she couldn’t hear what was being said. They had been back at the facility for two days, and there was talk about when they’d all be going to New York, or at least the safe zone that they now had within the city. Clarke wasn’t sure that she wanted to go, sure, things weren’t perfect where they were right now, but it was as close to a feeling of home than Clarke had had in a while.

“They’re talking about New York.” Lexa said from her bed.

Clarke could hear in Lexa’s voice that she was trying to sit up, so she rolled her eyes as she turned and looked at her.

“You’re not really getting this ‘lay still’ thing, are you?” Clarke said with a sigh as she walked over and helped Lexa sit up.

“I’ve been stuck in this bed for nearly a week, Clarke, _a week_.” Lexa groaned, causing Clarke to laugh a little as she shook her head and sat down in the chair next to Lexa’s bed, “I mean, sure I was unconscious for the first 4 days, but it still counts.”

“Sure, it does.” Clarke said with a soft smile, reaching over and brushing a strand of hair from Lexa’s face, her brow furrowing as she felt that Lexa had a temperature.

“Where are you going?” Lexa said, taking hold of Clarke’s hand as the blonde stood up and started to walk away from the bed, “you can’t leave me here, Clarke, it’s not fair.”

Clarke laughed a little and shook her head, turning back around and placing a soft kiss on Lexa’s head.

“I’ll be right back,” She said, “I promise.”

Clarke walked out into the hallway, closing the door behind her. As soon as she stepped out into the hallway both her mother and Becca stopped talking and looked at her.

“How’s the patient doing?” Becca asked, looking over Clarke’s shoulder into the medical room.

“She’s not too patient,” Clarke replied with a small laugh, “she’s getting a bit grumpy about still being stuck in that bed.”

“I bet.” Becca said with a soft smile, “I’ll check in on her later.”

A look passed between Becca and Abby before the former walked back down the hallway.

“What was that about?” Clarke asked.

“She’s wanting to know when we can get moving on the vaccine,” Abby said with a sigh, “the sooner we can make a start with that, the sooner we can all be on our way to New York.”

“You look tired.” Clarke said, noticing the dark circles that were starting to grow under her mom’s eyes.

“It’s been a tiring few days,” Abby replied, “but it’s important work. Is something wrong?”

“Lexa,” Clarke said, glancing back towards the room, “she has a slight temperature.”

“Are you sure?” Abby said, her brow furrowed, “she was fine when I checked in on her this morning.”

“She’s definitely warmer than she should be.” Clarke replied.

“It’s probably nothing,” Abby said, trying to reassure her daughter, “but I’ll run a blood test to make sure.”

“Thanks.” Clarke said with a small nod and a smile.

Just before they were going to walk back into the medical room their attention was attracted to Aden, who was walking down the hallway with Jake.

“Are you sure there are no dragons?” Aden asked, looking up at Jake.

“Pretty sure.” Jake replied with a nod.

“Lexa told me there could’ve been dragons,” Aden said, “just that they weren’t talked about.”

Clarke laughed a little, Aden had been pretty disappointed when her dad told him there weren’t any dragons in Snow White, but Lexa made up for it by pointing out that maybe they just didn’t live in the same forest.

“Clarke.” Aden said with a big grin, dropping Jake’s hand and running over to her.

“Hey bud,” Clarke said, picking him up, “how was your morning?”

“Good,” Aden replied, “is Lexa awake?”

“She sure is,” Clarke said with a nod, “you want to go in and see her?”

Aden nodded and Clarke put him back down before she opened the door and let him in the room. He wasted absolutely no time running over to the bed, using the chair Clarke had left there to help him climb up, before cuddling into Lexa’s side.

“Let’s get that blood test done.” Abby said with a small sigh.

“Is something wrong?” Jake asked, his brow furrowed in concern as he looked between his daughter and his wife.

“She has a temperature…” Clarke said.

“I’m sure she’s going to be fine,” Jake said, putting his arm around Clarke’s shoulder and kissing her softly on the side of the head, “she’s a fighter.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

“You want to tell me why your mom decided to turn me into a pin cushion again?” Lexa said, turning her head as she looked at Clarke.

“You have a temperature.” Clarke replied honestly.

“Right.” Lexa said with a nod, looking back up at the ceiling, her jaw clenched slightly.

“I’m sure it’s nothing.” Clarke said, taking Lexa’s hand, the brunette still not looking at her, “maybe the wound wasn’t cleaned completely…”

“Or maybe the assholes in the mountain coated the bullets with the virus before loading them in their guns…” Lexa said with a sigh, “we just don’t know.”

“There is one person who might know.” Clarke said, causing Lexa to look at her again.

“Is he still alive?” Lexa asked.

“Becca is keeping him alive to get information from him,” Clarke said with a soft smile, “and he has yet to do anything to piss her off.”

“Give him time.” Lexa replied, smiling a little as Clarke laughed.

“I can ask him.” Clarke said, Lexa nodding her head a little.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“The General mentioned that you wanted to talk to me.” Finn said, a smile playing on his lips as Clarke walked into the room, sitting down on the opposite side of the table.

“I have a couple of questions.” Clarke said with a nod.

“Is the audience really necessary?” Finn asked, his eyes flicking over to where Anya was standing by the door.

“I’m here to shoot you when you fuck this up.” Anya said.

“I wouldn’t hurt Clarke.” Finn replied.

“You’re not going to get the chance to,” Anya said, walking closer to him, “one wrong move and your brains end up decorating that wall behind you, got it?”

“Got it.” Finn said, obviously not liking the fact that Anya had every intention of staying in the room.

“Before we attacked the mountain,” Clarke said to Finn, “you told them we were coming, right?”

“I mentioned that the army were going to attack them, yes.” Finn said with a nod, “it’s the only way they would keep me alive and not use me as part of their experiment.”

“Do you know if they prepared anything before we got there?” Clarke asked, elaborating when Finn looked at her in confusion, “with the virus…”

“I think I saw a couple of their security guys dip a few of the bullets in the virus,” Finn said, “but the head guy wasn’t too happy with that, said something about the risk of friendly fire.”

“That’s all I needed to know.” Clarke said, pushing the chair back as she moved to stand up.

“Clarke…” Finn said, his hand reaching out and gripping her wrist, alarm flashing across his face when he heard Anya cocking her gun.

“Let her go, or I shoot you.” Anya said coldly.

“I just want to talk to her.” Finn said, looking at Anya, “I’m not going to hurt her.”

“Enough.” Becca said as she walked into the room.

Finn dropped Clarke’s wrist but Anya didn’t lower her weapon.

Clarke decided not to hang around in the room, and as she was leaving she was pretty sure she heard Becca say they only needed Finn for a couple more days. Clarke knew that he was lucky to still be alive as it was, Lexa had wanted to kill him more than once, and she also knew that he had to pay for what he had done.

 

x-x-x-x

 

After stopping by the medical area and telling her mom what Finn had said about the bullets, Clarke went back in to see how Lexa was doing. A soft smile played on her lips as she saw that Lexa was fast asleep, rather than wake her up Clarke simply kissed her forehead and left the room, deciding to go and see Aden instead.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Clarke’s eyes fluttered open at the sound of hushed voices, she didn’t even realise that she’d fallen asleep. She glanced down to find Aden fast asleep curled into her side, they had been watching a movie, obviously both falling asleep during it. She looked to the doorway to find her parents talking to Becca, she couldn’t hear what they were saying but she knew from the look on her dad’s face that it wasn’t good.

“What’s going on?” Clarke asked, gently moving Aden so she could stand up without waking him, before she walked to the doorway.

“Listen, Clarke, honey…” her dad started to say.

“No…” Clarke said, shaking her head as she looked at her mom, “please tell me you’re wrong…”

“We’re not wrong, Clarke.” Her mom said, shaking her head slightly, “I wish we were.”

Clarke’s eyes started to fill with tears as she glanced back into the room at Aden, who was still fast asleep.

“The vaccine…” Becca said, causing Clarke to look at her.

“You mean the vaccine that has yet to be tested?” Clarke asked.

“It has been tested, Clarke,” Becca said, “the scientists here assure me that it will work against the original strain of the virus.”

“But that isn’t going to help Lexa, is it?” Clarke said, fighting to keep her voice down so she didn’t wake Aden, “she’s already infected.”

“It might help Lexa,” Abby said, causing her daughter to look to her, “we have been making a few alterations, to turn it from simply a vaccine into a cure. We haven’t had enough time to test it properly, but every test that we have done is positive. As of about an hour ago they had run it against 10 virus samples and it successfully eradicated 6 of them…”

“So, it’s worked on just over half of the samples…” Clarke said shaking her head, “you know as well as I do that that just isn’t enough.”

“It’s all we have right now.” Becca said, interrupting the discussion between the two Griffin women, “and we don’t have time to test anything else.”

“You need to talk…” Clarke started to say, ignoring Becca and keeping her eyes fixed on her mom.

“We already have,” Abby said with a soft smile, “we spoke to her first. She knows what’s happening, Clarke, and she is aware of the risks and the chance that it might not work.”

 

x-x-x-x

 

Clarke walked back into the medical room, carrying Aden who was still half asleep.

“Hey…” Lexa said, pushing herself up so she was sitting against the pillows on the bed.

“This sucks…” Clarke replied, walking over to the bed, before sitting down in the chair with Aden.

“Well someone has to be first, right.” Lexa said, a small smile dancing on her lips.

She was scared, terrified, but she didn’t want to show that in front of Aden, or Clarke. When Abby had told her that her blood test showed signs of the virus, she knew what needed to happen, and had asked Abby to get her a gun. The older Griffin woman had looked at her like she was insane, and explained about the vaccine. She had told Lexa that it may not work, but it could do, and if it did then there was no need for guns.

“How are you so calm about all this?” Clarke asked, her eyes starting to fill with tears.

“I’m not,” Lexa replied, shaking her head as she reached over and wiped the tears that were falling from Clarke’s eyes, “I’m really not…”

“Abby said you’re sick.” Aden said, his little face showing his internal battle to try and not show Lexa he was upset.

“Yeah,” Lexa said with a small nod, “yeah, bud, I’m sick.”

Clarke quickly wiped at her eyes again as she took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling.

“Clarke,” Lexa said, “can you… can you give me and Aden a minute?”

“Of course.” Clarke replied with a nod, Aden climbing off her lap and onto Lexa’s bed, before the blonde stood and walked to the door.

As soon as she walked from the room she was engulfed in her dad’s arms.

“This is really not fair.” Clarke said, sobbing into her father’s shirt as she clung to him.

“I know, honey,” Jake said, softly kissing her head, “I know.”

She pulled back from the hug when she heard someone else walking down the hallway. It was Anya. Clarke wiped away the tears from her face, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, before she turned to look at the other girl. She was surprised to see the redness in Anya’s eyes, indicating that she had also been crying, but Clarke wasn’t going to bring it up.

“How’s she doing?” Anya asked, looking in through the glass pane of the door to see Lexa talking to Aden.

“I don’t know.” Clarke replied honestly, “she… er… she wanted to talk to Aden alone.”

“I think she’s done talking to him now.” Anya said, pushing the door open and walking into the room.

Clarke stood by the open doorway and watched as Anya wordlessly walked over to Lexa’s bed, kissed her friend on the head, before picking Aden up and walking back out of the room.

“Will you stay?” Lexa asked as she looked at Clarke.

Clarke nodded and walked back into the room, sitting back down in the chair again, Lexa not hesitating as she reached over and took Clarke’s hand.

“Told you that falling in love during an apocalypse was a bad idea.” Lexa said.

Clarke couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped her even as the tears fell from her eyes.

 

x-x-x-x

 

“You can still change your mind.” Abby said, as she walked over to Lexa’s bed carrying the syringe which contained the vaccine.

“Worst thing that can happen is it doesn’t work,” Lexa said, shaking her head, “that doesn’t leave me any worse off than I would have been anyway… Might as well give it a shot, right?”

“I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye,” Abby said, a soft smile on her lips as she looked at Lexa, “but I want to say thank you, for everything that you’ve done, for helping to get those people out of the mountain, and everything that you’ve done for Clarke…”

“You just remember that when this works and you’re stuck with me for a while longer.” Lexa said, a small smirk tugging at her lips as Clarke huffed out a laugh.

Abby shook her head as she smiled before injecting the syringe into Lexa’s arm.

“I love you…” Lexa mouthed to Clarke, choosing to look at her rather than her arm.

 

x-x-x-x

 

Clarke paced the room as the hours passed, the vaccine had caused Lexa a lot of pain, though Abby explained that was to be expected, so they had sedated her.

“Any change?” Raven asked, causing Clarke to jump as she hadn’t even heard the door open.

“No.” Clarke said, shaking her head, “my mom said her fever hasn’t got any worse, which apparently is a positive thing…”

“She’ll get through this, Clarke,” Raven said, gently squeezing Clarke’s hand, “she’s a badass.”

“What’s wrong with my ass?” Lexa groaned from the bed.

“I said you’re a badass, not that you have a bad ass.” Raven replied as Clarke walked over to the bed.

“How’re you feeling?” Clarke asked, checking Lexa’s temperature again by softly placing her hand on the brunette’s forehead.

“Sore…” Lexa grumbled, “that shit was like fire running through my veins…”

“My mom said that was because it was fighting the infection rather than vaccinating against it…” Clarke said, a soft smile on her lips as Lexa opened her eyes and looked at her.

“Well it’s evil…” Lexa replied.

“I’ll let her know,” Clarke said, “I think your fever has broken.”

“And I didn’t eat anyone’s brains, bonus.” Lexa said, causing Clarke to laugh.

“How are you doing, Lexa?” Abby asked as she walked into the room.

“Top of the world.” Lexa said, never taking her eyes off Clarke.

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone has any drabble prompts, hit me up on tumblr @unaligned-valkyrie.


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